Guest blooger: Laura Kuehn - Spiritual amnesia

When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight. ….. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.” (Joshua 4:1-3, 6b-7)

After Joshua escorted the nation of Israel across the Jordan River, God asked them to build a sort of monument. Not to Him, but for them. He wanted it to be a tangible reminder of His great power and might. And He wanted that remembrance passed down from generation to generation.

As we read through the Bible, it’s easy to see a theme emerge – a call to remember. The fact that God asks His people to remember so many times is because of the human tendency for spiritual amnesia. We tend to forget the good things God has done for us.

My recent reading through Exodus highlighted this dynamic very well.

After a miraculous escape from their ruthless masters in Egypt, the Israelites were quick to forget what it was actually like. Their immediate fears about the pursuing army caused them to want to go back to the place where they had literally been enslaved, beaten and mistreated.

Again and again throughout Exodus, we see this pattern emerge: God rescues His people from some hardship and they are happy. Soon after, they experience another hardship, complain to Him, and blame Him (or Moses) for their pain. They seem to quickly forget all that He had done for them just days before.

I admit that I can be a bit like the Israelites. I can quickly forget the good things God has done for me. My present needs somehow crowd out the historical provision of my Lord.
James 1:17 says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” I love this verse because it is a reminder to me that all good things are from God, no matter how small. A smile from a stranger. A honey bee pollinating my squash. A text from a friend at just the right time. These are all good gifts from God.

Because we have this tendency to forget, keeping a “goodness of God” journal can help. You simply document the ways in which you have seen the goodness of God in your day-to-day life. When our kids were little, we did this as a family. We kept a little notebook near a bowl of river rocks, so if they ever asked what the rocks were for, we would have an answer. I look back at the entries in that journal and am grateful for what we documented. I suspect I would have forgotten most of them had we not written them down.

You don’t need to wait for life to “get easier” to start this practice. Start today and you will be amazed at how your mind and heart start to orient to the goodness of God in your everyday life.

“For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations" (Psalm 100:5).