The Pain of "Forget"

Throughout life there are experiences that we wish we could forget. Pains and past hurts that serve as an on-going reminder that we are “not okay”. Ironically there are also things within our life that we hope we never forget. The sound of the ocean tide sweeping the shore, the warmth of the sun on our face, the moment we had our first last kiss, and the time when our child invited us to come and play.

These moments of goodness are essential to our memory. They serve as a compass, always pointing us in the direction of possibility and hope.

Yet sometimes during the pains of life, we become so overwhelmed with a destructive reality that our capacity to “remember” life’s joys drastically diminishes. The opening narrative of Exodus tells of a good God who had continued in life-giving relationship with his people throughout the generations. God had expressed his goodness to Joseph and his descendants in such a way that all of God’s people knew their identity and their hope.

The story takes a dramatic turn with the death of Joseph’s generation and the birth of a king (who had no memory of the good past). These two events cause the collective memory of God’s goodness and promise fade away. Exodus 1:8 hits like a thud: “Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.” This was the turning point; the moment when God’s people began to forget.

When the difficulties of life come our way and begin to make for us a new reality, it becomes all too easy to forget the good of the past. Not only do we loose our hopeful memory of the past but we also let go of the possibility that good will re-emerge in the future.

Maybe in the midst of a difficult relationship, the loss of work or in declining health, your capacity to “remember” the goodness of life, and the One who created it, has escaped your memory. Yet this is not where the story ends. Pharaoh (and the lords of this earth may have forgotten) but the God of creation never forgets.

May you, whether wondering in pain or basking in joy, be reminded of a good God who has not forgotten.