Over a year later...

Wow. December 6, 2008. Seriously? Where has the time gone? I must admit, it is kind-of fun going back and seeing old posts and pictures. It is amazing how time can pass but something as simple as a picture or a few words can just bring the memories rushing back.

For Christmas, the owner of Curves here in Newburgh gave the staff wives at the church a free 1-year membership. So, of course, I am taking full advantage of that...and loving it!!! But I have realized that I have very few T-shirts to work out in that are decent enough to be seen in public. Most of them are very oversized, stained, painted, and even a few with holes. So, I figured I would go to my local thrift shop to pick up some T-shirts for working out. I then remembered that my mother had saved a bunch of my old T-shirts from Jr. High and High School to make a quilt. Well, I had not seen or heard of any quilt yet so I figured they were just being stored somewhere in the basement. I gave her a call and sure enough she had an entire tub of them! She brought them down to me this past weekend and with every T-shirt and every sweatshirt memories, feelings, thoughts all came rushing back.

What is it that triggers your memories from the past? Certain scents? Pictures? T-shirts? Movies? Music? Sometimes it does not take much. Do we have certain triggers when it comes to our relationship with God? When we have strayed from the discipline of Bible study...is there a phrase, a verse, a song, a concept that just can send us rushing back, even for just a moment? What about when we are in the "habit" of church. When it just feels like you go because that is just what you do. Is there an old hymn that can take you back to when you first accepted Christ? To a time when you could see God active and working in your life.

It seems to me that we all go in cycles. We have different sets of memories at different times. Some good, some bad, some funny, and some sad. It is nice to be reminded of where we have come from, what has shaped us, BUT I am very thankful that they are just memories and that we do not have to hold on to them as though they are life right now. And, what is life right now will one day be a memory and we will have new experiences and create new memories. Life is fascinating. God is always active and working in us and through us. Though sometimes Jesus, His death, burial, and resurrection seem to be just a memory, we must know that it is so much more! Let every time we stray, every time we sin, every step we take, be a trigger to that memory.