Memories Make Us Who We Were

        Philosophers have long understood that memory helps to make us who we are.  Psychologists have also understood that memories can handicap us.   Our identities are closely related to what we remember.   I remember my parents, my childhood years, and the important experiences of growing up.  All of those memories have been important in shaping me.  Often our behavior in the present is controlled by memories of what happened to us in the past, and we can be restricted in our options by our memories. 

        I may distrust women with short brown hair and green eyes because I was hurt by someone who looked like that many years ago.  Because I remember being embarrassed by my math teacher in the third grade, I may struggle to learn math today.  Because I may remember something particularly mean or hurtful that I did many years ago, I may continue to feel shame and guilt.  I may love or hate someone I just met because they remind me of someone I loved or hated many years ago.

        Memory is an important influence in shaping what we expect every day.  All of this baggage of memory that we carry can cause us to respond with prejudice or suspicion toward someone who does not deserve such a response. 

         Where we are working on the border between the Dominican Republic and the Haitian border, there is strong mistrust between the Dominican people and the Haitian people.  For centuries they have fought with one another, and have invaded each other’s country. 

        We are working hard to get them to make some new memories, but truly, only Jesus Christ can really help shape new memories.  Already we have seen the power of  Christ’s love to break down prejudice, as Dominican doctors helped provide service for Haitian patients, and Haitian doctors like Dr. Marc Pinard, served Dominicans’ health needs. 

        God’s Word promises that when we accept Christ as our Lord, we become “new creatures.”   That is, our old beliefs about ourselves can be changed.  We can have a new start.  Our country is torn by racial and ethnic mistrust, and that mistrust is often based on old memories.  Those memories may be of real injustices, or they may be memories of things we were told as children.  But in any case, they should not poison our perception when we meet someone new.   Every Christian must encounter each person with the understanding that the person they are meeting is loved by God.  It does not matter whether that person is male, female, black, white, blue-eyed, brown-eyed, short, tall, smart, slow, or whatever.  Every person is precious in His sight.

            If we are handicapped by prejudice because of old memories, we must ask God to give us fresh eyes to see His people.  Only God’s love can really transform people and make a real change in prejudice.   Legislation will not change things; riots and threats of violence and lawsuits only makes the divisions worse.  Only when we learn to see each other with God’s eyes will prejudice and hatred cease to be tools in Satan’s hands. 

         If you will ask Jesus Christ to come into your life as your master, He will begin a process of transformation that will free you from the bondage of the past.  It may happen quickly and dramatically, or it may happen slowly and steadily.  Your behavior that has been fear-based and hatred-based will wither away.  Behavior that is based in Christ’s love and wisdom will begin to emerge, new memories will be created, and true wisdom of living will shape you into a new being. 

         God’s Word says that “He will remember our sins against us no more…”    In other words, God will forget our sins, because we are new creatures; the sins of the past will have nothing to do with who we are now.  The sins of abuse or violence committed against us in the past will also lose their power to shape us.  Jesus Christ brings true freedom from prejudice, because He delivers us from the power of old memories.