When you come into the Promised Land and move into houses you did not build, take over crops you did not plant, and eat victuals you did not grow, then beware lest you forget the Lord. (Deuteronomy 6:12)
Don’t forget. Unless you need to.
The theme of half the sermons from Old Testament prophets is “Remember, O Israel.” The Hebrew word is zakar and it’s justifiably a big deal in God’s Word.
But there is a lot to be said for forgetting, too. Much in our lives does not need to be retained.
I heard of Jill Price, a California woman who remembers everything. Not that she wants to. Ever since she was 8 years old, beginning in 1974, her mind appears to have switched on some feature the rest of us do not have and wouldn’t want in a thousand years. From 1980 forward, she has “near perfect” recall on everything.
By “everything,” we mean what she had for dinner, what she watched on television, the news that night, the temperature, conversations, everything.
Jill Price’s story is told in a book some have called “the weirdest book of the year” with the title The Woman Who Can’t Forget.