Memory's Wardrobe

Do you sometimes laze in your armchair contemplating the faces and places of long ago?  Do you hanker for those ‘good old days’ when the expression ‘jobs for life’ summed up the experience of a large proportion of the population, and no one had heard of Brexit? ... indeed, some of us delight in the recollection of times when the EU, or its forerunners the Common Market or the European Economic Community, had not come over our horizon!

Jobs, interests and preferences change over the years for all of us and, as life has handed us on from one age to the next, we have built up a history of employers, clubs and organisations that we have joined and left.  We have met and parted company with a variety of friends and acquaintances, maintaining contact with a treasured few, and losing touch with – even completely forgetting – many more.

Most of us are left with a store of memories from several different situations; while the detail may be lost in the passage of time, some of that plethora of faces and personalities will linger ... even if we can no longer fit a name to the face!  Almost certainly we can learn from these pictures of the past, for quite possibly there will be parallels with our present life and sometimes we can link these together to advantage.

It’s not just our working or social lives which are enriched by past experience.  The same is true of our spiritual lives, too.  I was recently asked to recall key people along my journey to faith, who brought home to me the truth of the Gospel.  I came up with three people, all priests, each with two significant claims to answer that question.  The first conveyed an almost aggressive boldness, encouraging me to go out and achieve; he also admonished me when I had opened myself to a potentially scandalous accusation.  The second priest gave me much advice and teaching in my Reader ministry ... and wisely received and reacted to my confession a few years later when I no longer felt worthy of continuing in that role.  The third one became a friend, although aware of most, if not all, of my shadowy secrets, and was not averse to acknowledge some of his own weaknesses and difficulties.

Timothy had such a formative character in the apostle Paul, who gave valuable advice to the young minister in his letters to him that have come down to us in our Bible.  In particular, he reminded him of the way his mother and grandmother had taught him the scriptures (2Tim. 1:5), and of their vital part as the foundation for all of his ministry (2Tim. 3:14-4:5).  We would do well to heed Paul’s words and consider how relevant they are in our lives.

We don’t pass through any experience without learning from it: even the disasters of life, and our memories store each experience away for the future.  If we are invited to a party, we open the wardrobe doors, wondering what to wear; when we find ourselves in a new situation, it is good to be able to open the door of memory and let some experience of the past emerge, or recognise a verse from scripture as it comes to mind.  As we relate this to our present circumstances, perhaps we will find guidance in coping with a new experience.  The present will never mirror the past exactly, but it’s surprising how often there is a link that will help us if we have the patience to see it.

Moving In ... and Moving On!

The other day I washed a windowsill.  There’s nothing special about that, I hear you say.  Quite true, I suppose, it’s not a special occasion ... but for me, it was.  As I did so, I realised that this was the first time I’d washed that windowsill in all the years I’ve lived in this flat; at any other time I would have flicked it with the duster and considered it done.  The thought prompted an exclamation, “Go in and possess the land!”

Of course, there’s a whole back story to that little occurrence.  I suppose it all began during my recent holiday.  While I was away, tradesmen had descended on my flat, redecorating the bathroom and fitting new blinds there and in the kitchen.  Inevitably, there was a small amount of ‘evidence’ of their presence to be tidied away after my return and I used this need as my excuse to accede to a recent temptation to invest in a new vacuum cleaner. 

This small, but powerful, bag-less cleaner removed more dust and detritus in a week than its predecessor had managed in years!  Not only did it clean my carpets; it also uplifted my whole attitude!  A number of reforms have taken place in the last couple of weeks, prompted by the combination of the smart bathroom and the new cleaner.  Thus it was that, when I spotted brick-dust from the blind installation on the edge of the tiling around the kitchen sink, instead of simply acknowledging its presence, I wiped it off, and thereby realised the need for the whole area to be cleaned ‘properly’.

My exclamation, therefore, was about far more than a clean windowsill.  Knowing it was of biblical origin, I sought out exactly where.  The phrase occurs many times in Deuteronomy and elsewhere, and refers to the Israelites, after their escape from Egypt and the ensuing years of wandering in the desert, being told to enter the Promised Land.  It’s a two-fold command; they were to go in, and they were to take possession of the country. 

It’s one thing to cross the border and say ‘we’ve arrived’ (Joshua, ch.4-5).  It’s another matter entirely to take possession of the place.  In fact, it could be argued, that was something the Israelites never properly achieved.  Their possession was undermined by all kinds of dealings and compromises with the peoples already living there, whereas God had told them to ‘totally destroy them’ (Deut. 20:16ff).  The early chapters of Judges tell of this disobedience.

So, when I arrived in my new home – nearly fourteen years ago – I went in.  To all intents and purposes, I was living there.   But I realise I wasn’t properly in possession of it.  I wasn’t exercising proper stewardship of the property in keeping it as clean as I would if it were my own, which is the ideal to which I suppose every landlord would like his tenants to aspire.  It would be good to think that the revelations of the last fortnight might make this happen.  Only time, and my prayerful dependence on God for his guidance and encouragement, will tell.

I’ve written here before about James’s examples of ‘oaks growing from acorns’ (James 3:3-5).  Who would have thought that a teaspoonful of brick-dust in the kitchen and a lick of paint in the ‘smallest room’ could overturn the bad habits of so many years?  God can work miracles in the lives of the common man, even today!

Whether we are talking about homes or lives ... are you in possession?  Or have you merely gone in through the door?