Happy Last Day of 2010! We are buried in snow drifts, the wind is howling, and more snow is expected today... and it's cold too. If you planned to end the year with a picnic, ya might have to hold it inside your home today. The ending of a year is a time when we often look back in thought about what we have done for the year; as far back as we can remember anyway. What did I do to bring glory to God's name in this year of 2010? Perhaps January 18, 2010 doesn't immediately come to mind like a DVD player set to 'resume' for you. It doesn't for me either. The news show 60 Minutes had a segment on people with near perfect recall. Name a date and the five people featured in the show would start rattling off what had happened to them that day, news headlines, songs, and all the stuff that most of us cannot recall exactly. The very next week, my Guideposts magazine featured a woman who had been in an accident on her bike and lost all of her memory. She had to start at zero and learn to walk, talk, eat, and the memories of her life are just gone. Wow.
Somewhere between those extremes is where most of us sit. You could name a random date from my lifetime and chances are that unless something of surpassing importance happened on that particular day, I wouldn't be able to recall more than general things about where I was working at the time, what hobbies I might have done and what shows were running at the time. On the other hand, I can recall an enormous amount of often trivial facts, some of which might have been proven wrong since I memorized them back in the day. Others may be better at remembering names and faces, relationships, or songs on the radio. Sometimes an event today will trip a lever in my memory bank and I can recall a picture show as seen through my own eyes of some event many years in the past. What would it be like to have that perfect recall? What would it be like to have no memories at all? We can probably see advantages and disadvantages to both.
The Bible tells us that when God forgives our sin it is put as far away from Him as the east is from the west. What would it be like to stand before God apologizing for all those sins we can recall, and then have God simply say, "I don't remember any of those things you speak of." You or I might stand there a bit flabbergasted. We struggle so hard to recall so many of the wrong things about each year. Sometimes a friend or coworker eases the struggle by bringing up things we would rather have forgotten. Other times a date can bring up bad memories of the past. You can take that as a date on the calendar or a person with you at a dinner in a restaurant; you may have experienced either one. More often than either of those is that old fretting brought on by a little whisper from the devil or our own anxiety. In your introspection this year, put on the armor of God, review it in Ephesians 6 if you need to, and look out from that armor at the good things you did this year.
No matter how busy you were with work or family, God led you to do something to help someone else, perhaps at some cost to yourself. A note of encouragement in an e-mail, something as small as that might help another person get through a tough day or forget those dark thoughts of depression. A short walk across the street to inquire about how things are going with a neighbor may have done more than satisfy your curiosity. That time you stooped to pick up something for that lady downtown may have meant more to her than just a quick favor; she may have had nothing else go right for her that entire day. And most important of all, remember all those prayers for someone else you prayed in this past year - God didn't let a single one of them go by without some action on His part, though you never saw the effect yourself. In your introspection for 2010, let's drop the self-condemnation this year. Let God lead you to His light.
Have a blessed and grateful new year in Christ!
Bucky
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