Today’s Thoughts on God – Memory, For What It’s Worth
Every New Year’s Eve or Day, my wife and I go through the calendar, remembering all of the amazing and not-so-great amazing things that happened during the year. Then, about three weeks later, we light the Unity Candle from our wedding and look through the pictures of that wonderful day. We mark those who are no longer with us, a list that grows with time. Both of these acts of memory remind us just how short life is, and that every day is a blessing not to be wasted. Jesus told His disciples to let tomorrow worry about itself; today is what really matters. Someone who is hungry today can’t wait until tomorrow, so feed them now. Because you never know what tomorrow will bring.
Billy Joel, one of my favorite musicians, wrote that “yesterday wasn’t all that great, and tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems”. Living in the past – living with regrets – helps nobody to have a better life; but learning from the past matters. Pining over the so-called golden years keeps us stuck. Every church I have served had the “golden boy/girl”; the pastor who just happened to be there when the Mainline churches hadn’t yet begun to implode. The memories are often flawed and exaggerated, like “remember when we had to put chairs in the aisles?” That happened on Christmas Eve and Easter when the family was visiting, and grandma guilted everyone into attending. The Sundays after? All those folding chairs sat empty, ready to be put back in the storage room until the next big tourist day.
You can sit in your living room watching the news, fretting over the future (which has its occasional benefits), or you can nap in your lounge chair and allow your memories to take you back to a world that never was. For me, today is what matters. If someone pops into my head, I’ll call them. If someone calls me and needs to talk, I’ll take the time to catch up. Memories are great, but don’t get lost in them. You might miss the new memories – the new acts of generosity – that are waiting to be made today.
Prayer – Holy God, thanks for the memories, and thanks for the new adventures to be experienced. Amen.
Today’s art is “In Loving Memory” by Ed Guru.