‘Future Memory’

11/13/2018

I Was Thinking…

She was so cute. I was sitting at the traffic light. I looked to my left and up against the school bus window was a little girl asleep. Her mouth was wide open, looked extremely uncomfortable but she was sound asleep. Her book bag was her shoulder pillow. She was not yet drooling but it could have happened at any second. She was in dreamland. She made me smile on a chilly early morning.

She also caused me to remember my own bus rides as a child. I could almost smell the bus again and feel the pull and tug of that big yellow monster as it made its way to and from school. I remembered the mornings of standing at the bus stop at 7:30 am to ride to school. I remembered standing there waiting on the bus and once it arrived, standing and waiting for the driver to open the doors and up those seemingly big steps I went. And almost like church, the further to the back I could sit, the better the ride. Just seeing that little girl in her ‘pre-drool’ state, pressed up against that bus window caused a flood of memories to invade my mind and heart. Maybe my memories have caused some memories for you too.

Memory is important in life. And I think memory is especially critical to leaders and influencers in life. What we hold on to in our memories shapes the path of the road ahead. As I read through the pages of scripture I am reminded of how many times the person of the present moment has been reminded that they are serving the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In other words, “O God our Help in Ages Past, Our Hope for Years to Come”—Memory! Has God done something for us in our past? Have we forgotten? If God has done something in us or for us or through us—then what can that say about what God might do in our future? How’s your faith memory these days?

The noise of a present circumstance can drown out the faith voice of the past. Or the noise of the present can become music for ‘future memory’—if we will only remember God’s touch in our past. May it be so for all of us. Pay attention to what is around you at the traffic light. It might just stir your memory—in a good way.

Always Thinking…