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The Importance of Taking a Walk Down Memory Lane

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Memories Help Us to Know Who We Are and Who We Can Be

This past Sunday we had another “faith sharing Sunday” combined with a 5th Sunday hymn sing. I’ve shared in previous posts about the “faith sharing Sundays”. This is where people have shared the stories of their faith journeys.

Wilma and Arlan shared their stories this time. I had heard most of these stories before, considering that they are my aunt and uncle. Even so, it is always good to hear them again and revisit those memories.

A 5th Sunday hymn singing is just what it sounds like. It’s singing to the Lord with happy songs and make music to the Lord in our hearts. We haven’t done this for a while and it was a nice reminder of my growing up in this church.

Both of these things transported me back to my youth and so many great memories. To the point of it being hard to see the page through my tears as I write this. Memories of Jim Nichols and my time as a teenager singing next to him in the choir, or when he would lead hymns and hold out notes for an exceptionally long time.

Memories are a powerful thing.

Music has an amazing way of connecting us to memories and feelings. When you hear a specific song, it can remind you of a time and a place so much that it transports you back there.

Like hearing Buck Owns, Hank Williams or Glenn Campbell and being taken back to watching Hee Haw with my family or working along side my Dad. Then I’m dragging Main Steet or on a date when I hear Boston, Journey, Kansas or the Doobie Brothers. Bluegrass music takes me to Stu Mossman’s home or guitar shop and sitting there with him as he teaches me to play the guitar.

Something about music invokes feelings.

Granted, not all memories are good, nevertheless they are a part of who we are. We are an accumulation of those memories and who we choose to be. It’s up to us to decide what we will do with them.

Our past is a part of our present.

This means that our present is a part of our future…not only ours but the future of those people we interact with. We have a responsibility to relate with others in such a way that is beneficial to both our futures.

My friend Shep is writing a book that speaks to the importance of this connection. He is sharing situations with people from his past that have affected his present. His purpose of this book is to help others understand the importance of these connections in hopes that it will lead to a better future.

Our actions today will affect the future…be wise in those actions.

Worrying Is A Waste of Time and Energy

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Avoid the Worry Trap

 

Worry is a real thing. It can eat away at our spirit like cancer. Too often time is spent worrying about things that no amount of worry will have any effect on. For some, the holiday season increases the level of worry.


It’s easy to get sucked into the commercial world of Christmas. This perspective will leave us feeling overwhelmed and inadequate. The world’s view is focused on money and gifts and trying to keep up with the Jones’s.


This isn’t how Christmas is supposed to be.


In the article “The Fog of Worry”, Earl Nightingale wrote about the counterproductive action of worry. He compares worrying to a fog covering a city.


According to the Bureau of Standards, “A dense fog covering seven city blocks, to a depth of 100 feet, is composed of something less than one glass of water.” So, if all the fog covering seven city blocks, 100 feet deep, were collected and held in a single drinking glass, it would not even fill it.


Worrying can trap us in a fog with no seeming way out. Mr. Nightingale goes on to explain this with an authoritative estimate of what most people spend their time and energy worrying about.

 

  1. 40% – never even happens.
  2. 30% – are over and past and can’t be changed.
  3. 12% – are needless heath worries.
  4. 10% – are petty, miscellaneous worries.
  5. 8% – this small percentage is the real legitimate things worth concerning ourselves with.


92% of worries are a fog that we create.

 


We need to focus our time and energy on the possibilities rather than the negative. This time of the year everything seems more intense, both good and bad. We just look for the good, the lights, the giving, the music, etc.


On Christmas in 2018, there was a nine-hour standoff between a man who barricaded himself in his home and the police. It began when he started shooting after his sister-in-law came to check on him, so the police were called. He continued firing shots at the police, from a second-floor window, hitting cars and nearby homes.


At 6:00 AM the next morning the SWAT negotiator tried something different…he started singing the Christmas song, “White Christmas”. When the song was over the man surrendered. This brought the standoff to a conclusion with no one being injured.


 

Music, especially Christmas songs, have a powerful message and connect with our emotions.


We can choose if we are going to focus on the negative or positive in this Christmas season and throughout the whole year. It’s up to us to make the choice.

 

 

Serenity Prayer

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.