Spiritual Amnesia

I really think my memory is going bad. I can't tell you how many times I walk into a room and instantly freak out because I can't remember why I walked in there in the first place. Twenty minutes later, in front of the TV, I freak out my wife when I blurt out, "Notebook!" having finally recalled the reason for my quest.

I often find myself plagued by this. Whatever it was that was so vitally important that I seek it out right then is now gone. It hangs there like a cloud, a dark spot in my conscious thoughts that will not let me rest until light is shed upon it. Or I give up and let it go.

Forgetting a notebook or a spoon or the remote is one thing, but what about forgetting the important things? Things like our love for others, or our faith, or even our devotion to God. I have so often heard a waking truth, revolutionary and life altering, that seems to fade as time goes by. I settle into a rut again and life goes on. Too often, the memory fades before I've had a chance to apply it.

James 1: 22-25
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.

How many people do this every week? They here the word at church and think that is good enough. Like a person (read: me) who is told by a doctor that they need to eat less salt then goes and gets a burger and large fries, we go out from church feeling better that we know something, but we don't apply it.

I know stuff. I know a lot of unimportant trivia, biblical and pop-cultural. Doesn't make me a better Christian or qualified to be on VH-1's "I Love the ____" (Apparently, I must be a sub-par failed musician or comedian to get that gig.) I think maybe that is our problem with this verse. We memorize scripture or learn the names of all twelve tribes of Israel and we think that makes us better, more holy. But our lives show no signs of change or growth. We have deceived ourselves into thinking we good because we know. And knowledge is power, right?

So if we know facts, why don't we apply them? Is it too much work, or do we jsut not get it? None of us are immune to this Spiritual Amnesia, even the most faithful have their lapses and failures. Maybe it is that we know too much.

"Knowledge puffs up." We may have grown a bit conceited in this Age of Information because we do know a lot of things about a lot of things. We like being able to throw out little facts and correct our friends when they have made an error. But does any of this newly acquired knowledge really help us? What does help us?

We must not forget the "perfect law" that we have such great opportunity to look into. We must do it. Knowing stuff is useless if it is not used to better our fellow man and ourselves. I'd rather forget all the great details that I know, if it meant I could better live out the things that truly matter. I'd rather be considered a simpleton if it meant I could be more compassionate, more giving, more humble, and more selfless.

See, the difference between us and Christ is not that He knew more than us, it is that He knew to do more than us with that knowledge.