Joshua 24: 14-18
14 “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
16 Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods! 17 It was the LORD God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. 18 And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God.”
Former NFL player Scott Bolzan suffers from retrograde amnesia after he fell in his bathroom in 2008 and hit his head. He and his wife recently released a book entitled My Life Deleted: A Memoir. His story is incredible because he lost all of his memories before the accident. His wife had to explain to him who his children were and all about the life they shared together. He had no memory of his NFL career either.
What a terrible loss it would be to erase all the memories you had of your previous life. So many seem to face this issue with high profile cases of early onset demensia or Alzheimer's disease as in the case of basketball coach Pat Summit. For the Christian this would be a terrible loss as well. Our memories of what God has done previously in our lives and the lives of others are a significant way that we move forward in our Christian life.
In the passage above the Israelites renewed their covenant with God at Shechem by recalling their collective memories of how God had saved them from slavery in Egypt. We too remember how God has worked in our past, the past of our church congregations, our denominations and how God has worked among the body of Christ for these 2 thousand years since Christ's death and resurrection.
Memories bolster our confidence to walk into an unknown future because we know that God has been faithful in the past and will continue to do so in that future.
Thank God this week for your memories. Thank him for your memories of how he has worked in your life in the past, knowing that it is a glimpse of how God will continue to work into your future.
