|
Remember When We Used to Forget?
For most of human existence, it was a great effort to remember. Think of time and work involved in cave paintings, chiseling words into stone tablets, etching letters on parchment, or wrestling with paper files before computer records. Viktor Mayer-Schönberger in the book Delete:The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age argues that now it is difficult to forget, or "delete" in electronic terms. The default is changing to remembering everything and requiring a special effort to forget. I know someone who was a victim of an accusation years ago. Even though nothing came of the accusation, the newspaper article is still the second item that appears in a Google search on his name. Just a decade ago, that article would have been forgotten and inaccessible. |  |
Part of what God offers us is not remembering our sins any more. I never thought of the difference between "forgetting" and "not remembering". Not remembering seems formal and forceful compared to forgetting, like going through old digital photos or emails and deleting the out of focus images and ideas.
I hope you forget what needs not to be remembered and remember that God is more forgiving than Google.
When Forgetting is a Blessing
For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
and I will remember their sins no more. - Hebrews 8:12
The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[ add comment ] | permalink
Calendar
