Memory Ministry

“Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;” (2Pe 1:13 AV)

 

Memory is an interesting thing.  It comes and goes depending on a lot of variables.  We can remember certain things based on what happened at the time.  Like remembering my best friend’s dad’s funeral who took his own life when we were about fourteen.  A certain song is played and it brings back all those memories of going to the funeral home.  Or the smells that fill the house at Christmas time.  They bring back memories of childhood Christmas’ of times past.  We can also lose our memories.  Stress makes us forget.  Fatigue is another factor.  We can remember things better if we are laser-focused on multiple tasks.  Or, we can forget just as easily.  Time seems to make the memory fade.  The things we learned in school are soon forgotten.  There is a quiz show all about that sad fact of life.  Age and physical changes can affect memory.  Something I am learning to adjust to without much success.  Peter is sharing a portion of what the ministry is all about.  Jarring the memories of the saints so as the stir them in their spiritual life.  A good portion of the ministry is maintenance.  It is relaying truths and foundations often forgotten over time.  This may seem cumbersome.  But it is not.

If you are like me, you are a one and done kind of person.  When something is accomplished, we go on to the next thing.  This is probably why I am not an accomplished musician.  As a child, I learned how to play rhythm guitar.  My father taught us how to play American folk songs and some popular music of the seventies.  The thing about any skill is that it takes repetition to be any good at it.  That is unless you happen to be a savant.  If you are half-way normal, there are hours upon hours in the week that you practice at that which you desire to accomplish.  This requires we rehearse so our memories are automatic.  If we do not use those skills, they can be lost.  I had laid down the guitar for thirty years after playing it.  When I picked it back up, I remembered all of the major chords, most of the minor chords, and a few of the sevenths.  However, there were a few I had to go back and learn.  Dm was a tough one.  C7 was another.  All of the chords in the B family had to be relearned.  I had to remember the difference between an Em and E7.  My memory failed me because I hadn’t used those skills in quite some time.  What is true of learning and maintaining a skill is also true of life.  We have to be reminded.

Many years ago, I had a pastor who would preach the same messages over and again.  Over the nine years that I knew him, there were some he preached three times.  Or more.  Repetition is necessary.  But that was borderline ridiculous.  However, there have been rare times when I have heard the same message more than once.  Sunday School is wonderful for this type of ministry.  Good practical teaching with overlapping subject matter means we get reminded a lot.  And that is a good thing.  We live in a generation that must have everything new and improved.  We don’t like reruns.  We want something that we have never seen before.  We want something fresh.  We want something hot off the press.  We want the latest installment.  We want the next episode.  We want the new release.  Life doesn’t work that way.  The word of God tells us, “For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:” (Isa 28:10 KJB) Whether we like it or not, we need to hear some of the same things over and over and over.