Over the last several months, my wife and I have been going through some of our many boxes and crates of things that we have collected over the years. We have been slowly going through things, trying to figure out what we still need and what we can get rid off. It's amazing how much 'stuff' can accumulate in just a few years time!
For some things, it is easy to determine if we want to keep it or not. Other things require a bit of thought. We often have to ask ourselves, "Do I really want to keep this? How important is it to me?"
As I have been going through things, many memories have been triggered. I came across some correspondence between my ex-wife and her family several weeks ago. A bit of a painful time in my life, so I did not keep it. I also have come across several different sets of things from when I was going through the ordination process with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the United Methodist Church. Some of the things were important documents of schooling and evaluations that definitely needed to be kept. Some other things were not nearly that important. But all had to be evaluated.
I have also come across quite at bit from the different vacations that our family has been on together. Some of the brochures no longer needed to be kept. But, some of them did for when we can put a scrapbook together. Again, many different memories came to my mind.
Isn't it interesting how seeing something will trigger one or many different memories? An old letter from a close friend, a special gift from someone who has passed away, a certificate from something that was a major achievement, or an evaluation that was not very positive but still a growing experience? I have had many such experiences these last few months as I have been doing this. There have been a few times where I took a short break to contemplate the memories that an item brought back, even if they were not very pleasant.
One of the more pleasant memories surrounded a couple pages of a note that my "church grandma" had written me many years ago. Because my dad was a pastor and my mom sang in the choir, I had to sit with other people in the congregation during worship. I probably sat with three or four different couples or families on a regular basis, but one couple, the McCleods, were the ones that I sat with the most. In fact, Charles and Ethel McCleod became my 'church grandparents.' On many different occasions I would spend time with them while I was growing up in Kansas. Needless to say, a real flood of memories came back to me when I came across just one letter from them!
We all have memories that we deeply cherish, as well as ones that we would rather forget. But, all of those memories help to create who we are today. It has been my experience that God can use each of those memories in His plan for us. I know that this may come as a shock to some of you. But, God can, and often does, bring beauty out of our ashes. In fact, we may never know how He may use the different experiences that we have had. Nor may we fully realize what God does through us on this side of heaven.
At different points of our lives, we will have to go through the things that have accumulated in our lives. they are physical things or just emotions and memories themselves. How will we sort through them? What kind of criteria will we sue for what we want to keep and what we want to get rid of? At least with the physical things we can get rid of. The emotions and memories, especially the negative ones, not so easy. It is a challenge, is it not? For me, the hope is that God will take all of my experiences, from the wonderful to the extremely painful, and use them for His glory. As we prepare for Easter this Lenten season, perhaps that is something we all should prayerfully considering, how God might made beauty out of our ashes.
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