FORGETTING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24492, 28 December 1940, Page 9

FORGETTING

. Written for the Otago Daily Times By the Rev. Gardner Miller In a few days we shall have folded up the last hours of 1940 and put them on the shelf of memory. It has been , a tragic year, yet not without its great i moments. Outside our own personal ! ways of living, the great world has been turning and twisting with the pain of .war. And we found that we, too, felt the pain. None of us can live our lives unto ourselves; we are so bound up with one another that the great tide of life, with its ebb and flow, which rises and falls upon distant shores, also crashes upon our familiar position. Yet through all the experience of the year that is now running down in the backwash of the retreating tide, there have been occasions when we glimpsed some high purpose both for the world and for ourselves. We have seen the great and simple beliefs which lie at the roots of our national life being submerged and pounded by waves of hatred, but they were not destroyed for they rose again and hurled back the snarling waves. War is always horrible, but we Britishers have had our eyes opened this year, and we have seen, in the midst of war's horrors, that simple things like honour and justice and freedom are so precious that we would die to ; retain them. And perhaps some of us have experienced something deeper and more personal. Perhaps we have i felt God very near to us when the fate of our Empire was in the balance, and that experience was just like standing on a rock which the tide could not bridge. To know that God is near, without being able to put our experience into words—and the greatest experiences are always beyond words —is something that not only gives purpose to life; it gives it its very meaning. And if we would add to those great moments of a tragic year let each of us, now that the year is fast flowing out. into the ocean of eternity, deliberately make up our minds that we shall forget some things. It is not everybody who knows how to forget. More's the pity. The art of forgetting is A Lovely Grace. Indeed, it is one of the loveliest graces. I have a great regard for -the men and women who know how to forget. I don't mean, of course, forgetting kindness done to you, gifts given you ahd opportunities that have been made possible for you through .the generosity of others. These are things we should never forget. They should become so much of our personality that every day reveals how much we owe to others. When I suggest that we cultivate the lovely grace of forgetting I mean, naturally, forgetting the mean things, the stupid things, the vile things that! have left a slimy trail as the year ebbed. You remember how the Apostle Paul speaks of forgetting. In that magnificent letter of his called the Epistle to the Philippians—a letter I always feel he must have dictated with galloping enthusiasm—he says, " forgetting the things-which are behind" ! There may be room for discussion just whether Paul meant forgetting all his past experience or just the last stretch of the road before he begins another, but, for me, personally, it means forgetting—and I'll tell you how in a moment—the things that hurt and maimed and kept sleep from my eyes and made life a misery. You know, it is queer how people talk about forgiving but not forgettjng. Forgiving seems to be easy and forgetting difficult. These are the people who also talk about burying the hatchet but take good care to leave the handle sticking up where they can see it for future use. But forgetting is indispensable in forgiving.. I do not say that old memories do not come back even after you have forgiven, or have been forgiven, but they cannot hurt you any more. Forgiveness has taken the sting out of them. ' In other words, forgiveness ,';'•? knows how to forget ahd never allows old sores to be reopened, even though the scars remain as a reminder of what has happened. I am positive that we would all have greater happiness in our inner lives and sweeter and freerer contact with those around us if we cultivated the lovely grace of forgetting. Forget that suspicion. My. how many characters have been besmirched by suspicion! It .is about the most ungodly and vicious characteristic I know. Unfortunately I have found more of this amongst Christian people than I have among those, who make no profession of Christianity Suspicion breeds deliberate lying, for truth is always the first victim to be slain by the venom of suspicion. If you have no proof, then don't be suspicious and don't talk. Even if you have proof, be merciful and think how you would like to be treated if you were in the other party's shoes. Remember, too. that to know everything is to forgive everything. Forget that weakness which somebody most unexpectedly showed. Forget, too. where your own feet slipped. Forget your own, righteousness and remember that but for the grace of God you would have nothing whatever to'be proud of. God is a Good Forgetter

He puts sins—yours and mine—behind His back. And He is far too busy to be constantly poking about in the past. He will never recall our misdeeds. You remember the story of the Prodigal Son? The father who met him on the way never said a word about the past. Of course. He knew all about it. but, being a gentlemen. he never referred to it —never, again: Hallelujah for that! It means that you a'nd I can trust, God to forgive and forget. And thai is how and why I refuse to recall old misdeeds and rake over them—my own as well as others—for I want to copy God.

And it seems to me that that is the only way of trying to be a Christian! When the pifgrim came up to the Cross, his bundle fell off his shoulders and rolled down and fell into the mouth of a grave and he never saw it any more. Of course not. God buries well. There is a resurrection of the soul, but there will never be a resurrection of sins. And that is another occasion for shouting "Hallelujah!" And so. as the old year tries to make vou uneasy in vour thoughts before it loses itself in the sea of God's tomorrow, reply to it firmly. " I shall be like my God who forgives and forgets; vou have no power over me: get you hence!"