The Art Of Forgetfulness
In November 1992 Queen Elizabeth II declared the year, 'annus horribilis', which apparently is Latin for a 'horrible year'! 1992 had been marked by the disintegration of royal marriages, the death of a close relative and a 'tell-all' book on the life of Lady Dianna. Every month brought with it more bad news. It was about to get worse, with the separation of the Prince and Princess Wales (Charles and Dianna) in December. Some years are like that.
Lord Baden Powell, the pioneer of the Scouting movement, hinted at the Art Of Forgetfulness in his poem 'If'.
'If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same. ... you'll be a man my son'
Bad times don't need to define us, nor do they need to determine our future. In fact, God appears to be much more concerned with our future than with our past! The Bible talks a great deal about moving forward.
The Apostle Paul wrote; 'this one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, I reach forward to what is ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus' (Phil 3:13-14) Paul said he deliberately chose to forget what was behind.
The Art of Forgetfulness is found in knowing that we have a choice. We can allow our past to define us. Or, we can let the goodness of our Heavenly Father deal with our past and determine our future.
With a closer reading, we can see that Paul wasn't talking about a casual forgetfulness like you'd forget where you left your sunglasses. In fact, the word Paul used for 'forget' really means to choose to neglect or deliberately devalue. Paul was talking about consciously choosing to evaluate past events in comparison with the overwhelming goodness, grace and mercy of God. And Paul included both his failures and successes in his forgetfulness.
In 1 Timothy 1:14, Paul explained how he had found mercy for his past sins in the abundant grace, faith and love that are found in Christ Jesus. Clearly, in God's eyes, sin and failure is no match for His mercy!
IF our true identity is found in Christ, we can wilfully 'forget' the past and choose a new life story that is written in Christ Jesus. How's that for mercy and grace!
