Remember

It’s not that I forgot to write a blog before today, it’ just that things got busy, a last minute trip to Dorset before lockdown to attend to my mum’s estate among other things. But the truth is my forgettery is getting bigger. My capacity to forget is improving. As you know I do some work as a Chaplain at East Surrey hospital. I love it. It’s such a privilege. To be a Chaplain I have to have various badges that allow me into the hospital and the wards. And I have to have a badge that lets me into the computer system so that I can record and update my visits. But they don’t just give you a badge. You have to have training in the use of it. No, I’m serious. I had to do six modules of training before I could use my badge to record visits. Six modules! So I sat at the computer and ploughed through the modules. I soon realised that for most of them all you had to do was to click on every page of the module to prove you’d read it. That gave you a pass. A 100% pass. And you needed a 100% pass on every module to use your badge. I thought I had it sussed until I got the end of the record keeping module and suddenly I was presented with a test! A test! And I had to score 100% to pass. It came with no waning. At this point I realised that my plan was seriously flawed. I couldn’t answer question 1. Or 3. Or 6. In fact I guessed on most of them. I scored 70%. I failed. But here’s the thing. I could take the test as many times as I wanted. So I started writing down the answers each time I repeated the test, so I could learn the correct ones. I needed to score 100%. Eventually I did. Took me about five goes. As I said, my forgettery is getting bigger! There are some things we remember. Important tings. Big things. Things we’ve invested time or money in. We remember information, enough to pass a test. We remember that someone hurt us or was kind to us. This weekend we will remember those who fought in war and gave their lives for our freedom. It’s important that we remember. We also forget things. Sometimes it’s good to forget. Holding onto things can do us great harm. Sometimes forgetting gets us into trouble. Sometimes it’s embarrassing. Always it’s because we’re human. The Bible tells us that God never forgets: “I will be with you always!” That’s a wonderful truth. Especially at this time. But it struck me that God also forgets. Yes he does! Psalm 103:12 tells us “as far as the east as from the west, so far has he removed our sins from us.” Bottom line is, God forgets our sin. And that’s good news. Great news in fact. Ok, if you want to be more theologically accurate, it would be better to say, not that God forgets our sin, but that he chooses not to remember. Either way, it’s great news. I had to take my test over and over again until it got it right. I had to get 100%. I don’t have to get 100% in life. I really don’t. If I did, I’d fail. Not juts a few times, but always. But I have a God who chooses not to remember my mistakes and my failings. I can come to him as many times as I need to and start again. And I for one am really, really glad that’s true. It’s something I would do well to remember.