THE POWER OF REMEMBERING

Could it be that an accumulation of unresolved issues in our lives—things that should have been attended to, resolved and amended within a family circles and between friends—that they may be the cause of illnesses like Dementia or Alzheimer’s? As people get older and they have never practiced repentance, but kept accumulating stuff; in their old age the unresolved bad things pop up and keep on plowing their mind.

Suppression and forgetfulness will never succeed because nothing is lost in this universe of His; God also made us in the same way. We are like an enormously large archive, and as it is the case with archives, older things are stored deeper, even in underground vaults. The fresher life’s events are the closer to the surface they stay.

[Genesis 9:15] I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. 

The illusion that we can forget bad memories is not only addictive but also faulty. Since it is from the seed of illusion, which eventually will cause disillusion, this seed grows a tree. So, until the moment you recognize it and get completely disillusioned you will live in delusion. This delusional state seems alright for it does appear to be true and quite normal, but it isn’t; it is filled with denials, hiding, pretense and multiple hide-and-seek games within one’s own mind as well as with other people’s minds. 

INTENTIONAL FORGETFULNESS 

Just as it is with those Arabs and Persians who deny the very existence of the Jewish people and their rights to the land of Israel so it is with many who prefer a sentiment rather than facts. Although Islam came to us around 600 AD (after Christianity) it borrowed many ideas from the Jewish Bible; hence from the country called Israel and Judea and its people (it was the Romans who changed the name “Israel and Judea” into “Palestine”).

Muhammad had twisted few things and set himself in a judge’s chair invalidating almost the entire Bible (with few self-suiting exceptions) and called its compilers liars. We know that the Bible is true because of the old manuscripts, which predate the time of Christ, e.g., the Dead Sea Scrolls; notwithstanding the fact that few additions to and minor renditions of the text occurred in Babylon and Persia; and also during the second temple period. But, that we can see today and easily identify without prejudice or malice. But this destructive prejudice, and malice, does not as easily go away in Islam, it is even nurtured.

Nonetheless, a blind belief that it was rather Ishmael than Isaac that Abraham tried to offer to God on Mt. Moriah continues to rule the Muslim mind. The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem sits on the rock upon which it is believed that Abraham laid his (only) son Ishmael (from Hagar the Egyptian maiden, which is believed to be the legitimate wife of Abraham, not Sarah).

Islam teaches that once a slave woman gives her master a child she is automatically free. It also teaches that Ishmael (Ismail) was Abraham’s only child, completely disregarding Sarah and Isaac.

This fight over memory is amazing, but it also shows us the ancient malady that survived to this day.

GOD REMEMBERS, BUT DO YOU TOO?

[Leviticus 26:42] I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also My covenant with Isaac, and My covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land.

My mother at the age of 80 during her last 5 years kept on memorizing all Psalms, all Letters of John, entire chapters from the Book of Isaiah and the Gospels. She could recite them by heart for hours directly from memory without any help. Without any exaggeration, my mother was a saint. There was not one evil bone in her or any vindictive streak, no anger but rather longsuffering. On the other hand I visited my long time friend in an old people’s home, a woman whom I remember as chipper and happy, but there she was; bitter-faced sitting alone while an entertainer kept cheering the old people. She even did not greet me with a smile. She said that ‘she hates remembering.’ Trying to pry her mind open was difficult.

A flat and self-suiting “I don’t remember” is an easy copout, as if the illusion ‘that as long as I don’t remember I won’t be judged’ is the absolute truth. Yet, it is not, it is only illusion. That lady seemed to have worked harder trying to forget than to remember the good old days… old, bitter and lonely… very sad.  

[Ecclesiastes 11:8] Indeed, if a man should live many years, let him rejoice in them all, and let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. Everything that is to come will be futility.

David said, [Psalms 37:25] I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread.

That’s how I worked on my mind in my youth. I remember those days filled with hunger because I had no money to buy a piece of bread, yet I have remembered how God supernaturally provided for me. Upon this remembering I turned to the LORD asking Him to provide for me again. He said gently within my spirit, “Go and buy yourself food.”

“I have no money, yet You say ‘buy.’” I replied. Then was thinking about going to my neighbors to borrow perhaps money or food. But it did not settle well with me. So I turned to the LORD again and He responded as previously, “Go and buy yourself food.” Finally I decided to obey His voice, for I reasoned within myself, ‘If I don’t obey His voice then how will I ever know if indeed He speaks to me or it is all in my own head.’

I went out. A strong wind gathered all the trash from the street and blew it into the courtyard and literally straight to my feet. I looked down and in this pile of trash I saw a 100 Dollar bill. I had enough food for more than a week. I have indeed heard God and I do remember that experience today and based on this memory I remember the future also, which in many ways He gave me a glimpse of. It is all based on remembering God and His true character. Digging Him, learning the laws of His Kingdom, applying them and rejoicing in them. 

IN THIS WORLD YOU WILL FIND NO TRUE JOY

If we seek any joy in this world then we will find only futility and sadness. What we have accumulated during our lifetime - without instruction and the right direction – this pile of sorrows will become so heavy that it will bend the roof under which we sit. Yes, it will cave in and crush us to death. Our space will become so oppressive that we would want to exhale for the very last time and expire.

[Ecclesiastes 12:1] Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no delight in them.”

That’s what I have done in my youth and I don’t regret it although it was not easy. As I age, although I don't feel it, I remember, more and more. It is easy to part with the old junk for it is indeed too old and useless. I love the new the fresh the everlasting. 

It is easy to remember how I was before repentance and then I remember the reality that this repentance ushered me into. It’s a joy. I was blind, I remember that also, but now I see; but this I know now for it is the present reality, my new sight. This sight must be maintained, groomed and nurtured and as we do it we sharpen our faculties of cognizance and yes; we are on the way of becoming glorious. God is not jealous over His glory. He longs to share it with us, as long as we bathe in His glory and not own own, which is illusion anyway. 

[John 14:26-27] But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.

I believe that by suppressing negative memories, in order to not deal with them because the self cringes at their recall, is like clogging up your plumbing. The water that you try to get rid of - because it's dirty - backs up on you. From this come diseases like the Alzheimer’s. Science confirms it today that Alzheimer’s can be avoided by exercising our memory functions.

However, that is only a little discovery, there is a bigger bag of information this discovery carries, and that is repentance, a complete parting with any old baggage.

T’SHUVAH and NAHAM are the two forces God created for us that bring us back to an overall health.