Consider this/ Einfach zum Nachdenken

A little while back I had a medical procedure done to me which most people my age need to undergo, but which I refuse to describe online. So for the few days before “P-day” I was surprised by my considerable nervousness. Then the day arrived: I went to see the doctor, I lay down, he gave me a sedative, then he asked me to get dressed. Well, not really: but that is all I remember. A combin

Forgetting and remembering are two key skills for human beings: we are supposed to remember birthdays, appointments, pin codes and if we don’t, we are in trouble. And it really helps if we can forget difficult and traumatic experiences, such as accidents, doctor’s visits and Arsenal matches. But for some reason most of us get it the other way round: we remember what the teacher in grade school did to us and we still blame her for it; and we forget what we promised our friends to do, and disappoint them (a thing they in turn will remember for the next twenty years).ation of a sedative and of an amnesic drug meant that I could not recall anything of the actual procedure. A really strange feeling!

The Bible offers a straightforward course in remembering and forgetting, so we learn what mental muscles to flex and which ones to extend. “Remember what God has done for you” is the most consistent exhortation of the Old and New Testament; “forget the former things”, “forget your own mist

akes” and “remember that you are mortal, dust, small”. One particular discipline of forgetting is called forgiveness, and it is almost ritualized in the Bible. We can expect that people will wrong us; but if we keep remembering that, we will get ulcers, physically and spiritually. Keeping a grudge is a sure way to be miserable and then die young. Instead the Bible suggests to take that real hurt, tie it to a stone, and throw it into the river of forgiveness.

One of Jesus’ co-workers rightly asked how many times he needed to do that with the same person (he clearly had somebody in mind, who was getting on his nerves): “ as much as seven times, in case they are a slow learner?” “Actually, Jesus replies: seventy times seven times”, which in Bible speak means “a thousand times, always”.

How can we do that, and why should we? How can we remember the good things which happened to us, and forget what hurt us, if everything inside us wants to do the opposite? It requires a new way of acting, one that is as counter-intuitive as bending your knees when you water-ski or breathing slowly when you are stressed. But once it becomes second-nature, it makes us happier and more pleasant people. Speaking of second nature: the Bible claims that this way of doing things is God’s own way. He forgets our sins: the image it uses is that he takes it and sends it as far away as the sun is from the earth. And he always remembers us: the Bible says he has each of our names tattooed onto his hand (that takes a mighty big hand, given that we are up to four billion now!). That is why God does not have ulcers, and does not die young, in fact he does not die at all. So maybe we should take his advice?

# posted by tino @ Sunday, March 18, 2012