Selective Memory Loss

I believe that everyone will agree that the mind is extremely powerful when working correctly. Likewise, when the mind is not working as it should, the threat to ourselves and others can be monumental. I remember about nineteen months ago, my mother was suffering from advanced stages of dementia. The doctors transferred her from the hospital to a hospice house and estimated that she would live for only a few more days. They explained that because of the dementia, her mind wasn’t communicating to the rest of her body what to do. She wasn’t controlling her breathing, swallowing, limb movement, etc as she should. The doctors were right; about 10 days later she went to be with God.

When God designed our mind, He gave us the ability to remember. We can remember Scripture, we can remember names, we can remember things that we have learned and the list could go on. Another one of the great faculties of the mind is the ability to forget. With these two great abilities come responsibility; we are responsible for determining what we remember and what we forget. We are setting ourselves up for potentially great hurt and failure if we confuse the two.

We need to always remember God, His greatness, His love, His mercy, His gentleness and a multitude of other attributes that make Him the true and only wise God that He is. We need to remember where we were, i.e. dead in our trespasses and sins, when He reached down and saved us. We need to remember how loving, merciful and forgiving He was to us then and the number of times we have experienced those same attributes repeatedly during our walk with Him. Such memories are very humbling and will help us to show the love, mercy and forgiveness to others that we should. It seems that some choose to forget their sins, weaknesses and failures and such forgetfulness can result in an arrogant, self-righteous and judgmental attitude toward others.

While doing an in-depth study on forgiveness a few years ago, one of the definitions I found was “to make it as though it never happened”. In other words, forget the wrong that you suffered. Many would argue that and say “well, I will forgive but I won’t forget”. I wonder if we truly forgive someone for wronging us, what is the need or purpose for remembering it. Again the argument might be posed that if we do not remember; we make ourselves vulnerable to it happening all over again. That may be true but if remembering would prevent us from “turning the other cheek”, that is all the more reason to forget. We are to forgive others as Christ has forgiving us. Could it be that the reason it is so hard to forget what others have done to us is because we try not to forget or may even go to such extremes such as continually reminding ourselves. I am so thankful that He has removed my sins as far as the east is from the west! The Lord doesn’t throw my blood-covered sins in my face but He does allow me to remember them so that they can produce Godly attributes in my demeanor.

My point is, our mind is powerful; powerfully good or powerfully bad! When we consider this, it is easier to understand the importance of Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” I believe it is very important that we be very selective in that which we choose to forget. There are some things that we should remember but probably won’t unless we forget the things which we should not remember and vise versa.