Forgetting Can Be a Good Thing

A good friend of mine is in the final months, or days of a long battle with stage 4 brain cancer known as glioblastoma.  He is a mental giant and has been known to wake up in the middle of the night just to parse Greek New Testament passages.  Something the rest of us seminary grads would liken to oral surgery!

Recently he has started forgetting things.  The tumors are growing and his brain is paying the toll.  He's still there, still alert and funny as ever, but his memory is slipping.  He knows it and he knows it's part of the drill.  His outlook is really good and he has total peace about dying.  He is ready to meet Jesus.  Give me some grace as I paint with a broad brush here: I don't know about you, but a lot of Christ followers don't seem ready to meet Jesus.  They really love this life and seem to act as though death would be the most tragic thing that can happen to us.  My friend is making death a sweet thing as he longs for Jesus when God is ready.

I was thinking about him the other day and the thought occurred to me that forgetting things is not all bad.  I thought about things I need to forget:

• People who have wronged me, or loved ones in the past
• Past sins I have confessed to God 
• Prominent people who have "stepped in it" (let it go and quit identifying them by one or two stupid mistakes)
• Undo, or unhealthy criticism from the past that continues to lurk around in my head
• People who've hurt, or lashed out at my friends, loved ones, or me from deep wounds that had nothing to do with those on the receiving end 
• Bad choices that I made in the past 
• Unrealistic standards and expectations of myself and others
• Losing in anything (me, or teams I follow)-it's just not that important!

I'm not saying we need to forget things like 911, Iwo Jima, Normandy, Columbine, a loved ones death, divorce, etc.  Tragedy, pain, and loss can be great teachers.  What have we learned from these moments both collective and personal?  However, we can't let them hold our future hostage.  We can't be so chained to the past with heartache, bitterness, hate and personal sin that it cripples our present circumstance and future. 

Paul never forgot his past mistakes, roots, and even people who wronged him, but he used it to grow and move forward.  The past didn't hold Paul hostage.  He gave us great advice in Philippians:

¹³ Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 

My bold and courageous friend is teaching me that pressing on toward the goal is indeed the most important thing we can remember.  Press on people of God!