The importance of memories

I'm the type of person who rarely takes pictures when I travel.  During a 10 day trip in Israel I took 200 pictures.  There were people in our group who took 10,000!  There are two reasons for that, first I'm a pretty pathetic photographer.  I'm the guy who gets the moving car in the picture or who finds a way to get the shot of you blinking or looking away.  Second, I want to see and experience and make last memories with my own eyes and not see everything through the lens of a camera.  Those memories, whether it's the smell of the streets of Jerusalem, the sights of looking over a mountain peak as I rode an elephant in Thailand, or hearing my boys say Dad for the first time or pray to their Heavenly Father are much more significant to me than a photo.

God seems to place a great deal of importance on having his people reflect and remember as well.  As I've been reading to I Samuel I came to chapter 12 where Samuel instructs the people to stop and remember the history of their people.  Similar commands are given in Joshua 24, Nehemiah 9, and Psalm 78, just to name a few.  Those leaders longed that the people would remember what God has done for His people in the past and would remain faithful to Him in the present.  Peter and Stephen do something similar in Acts 2 & 7 for the church.  As I've considered how regularly this takes place I've wondered why, what does reflection provide for us?

• Reminds us of the grandness of the story we find ourselves in.  Each Israelite generation needed to remember that God's promises for them went back to Abraham and they played a part in that blessing to all people that was promised to come through Abraham and his descendants.
• Unites our circumstances with the trials previous brothers and sisters overcame.  For each of us, we face doubt, hardship, and the temptation to give up or settle for less than what God would have for us.  Every believer has faced these opponents.  In reflecting, we see that those who have gone before us are not that different from ourselves, they fell to sin, they made mistakes, but they endured the opposition and overcame.  We face the same challenge.
• Allows our awe for God's great power and true goodness to grow.  If nothing else, reflection should bring our hearts to praise God all the more.  Whether we are reflecting upon His power and goodness to others who have gone before, or in reflecting upon His goodness to us in years that have gone by, our adoration of God and the humble posture that creates in our own lives is reason enough to take the time to reflect. 

The problem is our world is too rushed to prioritize the discipline of reflection.  We have our calendar set with meetings, appointments, activities, and tasks all looking ahead at what's coming up, but seldom do we look back at where we've been and what has already taken place.  I think that's a problem I face in my life, and fear that's the case for many within our culture as a whole.  I'll write more on this topic in the coming days in trying to find resolutions for how to simplify and gain that time to remember.