Do not forget to remember

During Ronald Reagan's American presidency in the 1980s, his administration came under scrutiny surrounding 'who knew what' about alledged sales of weapons to secure the release of seven American hostages in Lebanon. I noted one media report of the time saying that Reegan had replied to an investigating committee: 'I remembered forgetting being told'. I don't know if he actually made this statement but it illustrates how we often claim we were unaware of something and therefore absolve ourselves of responsibility. How often do we claim: 'I wasn't aware of that' or 'I don't remember being told that'? In the church today it is not credible to claim we are unaware of what we should know to make our lives attractive for others and to cause them to follow our example. 

The apostle Paul tells the Church at Corinth: I do not want you to be unaware (1 Cor. 10v1). In other words, he is writing down advice and wisdom for them which is rooted to examples from the past which can warn and guide them. They are urged to learn from the Israelites who escaped Egyptian captivity but who got stuck in the wilderness, where they grumbled about nearly everything and engaged in all sorts of harmful behaviour and rebellion against God (ref. 1 Cor. 10v8-10). The Corinthians were in danger of repeating these past mistakes through their harmful lifestyle choices and the divisions among them. One message for the church of today is to learn from the church of the past and avoid repeating the same mistakes. We hear it said that hindsight is a wonderful thing and as someone put it: everyone is a genius with the benefit of hindsight! In that case, considering the centuries of church history and what has been documented about it, the church today should be a genius at learning from the past. Sadly, this is not the case a lot of the time. It's as if we forget to remember or, (to return to the Reagan analogy) we suddenly 'remember forgetting being told'. 

We may forget to learn from the past if we believe it has limited use and we can get used to thinking independently of what has gone before and operating in our own self-reliant efforts. Paul goes on to warn those who think they are standing fine to be careful that they don't fall (1 Cor. 10v12 paraphrase). Put another way, self-reliance is unreliable. Paul intends guiding us towards God-reliance instead and in his second letter to the Corinthians reminds them that when God allows us to go through difficult times this often deepens our reliance on Him (2 Cor. 1v8-10) - again, when wrting there Paul retreads that phrase, I don't want you to be unaware (2 Cor.1v8). The good news is that God is faithful and He doesn't allow us to endure more than we can bear and always provides a way through the situation (1 Cor. 10v13 paraphrase and emphasis added).        

I write these comments at the end of another year and we will have our own view of whether or not it is a year to remember or one we'd rather forget. Perhaps the past year has some painful memories for you. I'm not saying we should dwell on the past - that was a problem for many of those Israelites in the wilderness who thought they should give up and go back to Egypt. There are times when God leads us forward and shows us that we shouldn't look back (see Genesis 19- Lot's family rescued from Sodom and Gomorrah). It is not about looking back with longing but rather an awareness of what is to be learned from the past. Even if we are not confident about learning from previous experiences, we can learn immeasurably from those who have already tread similar paths to those before us. It is no coincidence that Paul says twice within the space of a few sentences: these things happened as an example (1 Cor. 10v6, 11). Let us benefit from all the examples we have to draw from so that we never have to claim 'I remembered forgetting being told'. Let it be said of the Church: they do not forget to remember!