Week 3 July 2026 – REFLECTION ON DESIREABLE MEMORY LOSS

“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sin no more.”     Jeremiah 31:34

‘”An elephant never forgets!”  Riva, the pill-pushing pachyderm mascot in the “Neuriva” commercial, clearly favors pharmaceuticals over prophets. That’s why she triggered my wicked sense of humor, since her wonder drug appears to be mostly caffeine with “cherry extract.”  That reddish substance is seen on the coffee beans while they ripen on trees in countries where tea is perhaps the national beverage of choice. To be fair, Neuriva also contains “naturally sourced” Phosphatidylserine present in the brain, but that has not swayed the FDA to guarantee its scientifically established effectiveness.

Biblical wickedness is no laughing matter.  The word appears 22 times in Jeremiah, more than in any other OT book.  The dictionary defines it as “the profound state or quality of being intentionally evil.”  It goes beyond simple mistakes or occasional misbehavior, describing a deep-seated disregard for moral laws, justice, and the well-being of others.”  Most likely Corrie Ten Boom is the only person who can testify to that and is known to Christians worldwide as an expert in the art of forgiving and forgetting. Holland’s first female watchmaker and her family hid Jews in their home, were betrayed by a Nazi fanatic, and she came to experience the horrors of the notorious Ravensbruck concentration camp.  Prior to sister Betsy’s death, the two held secret Bible studies from a smuggled-in copy.  Perhaps they read Micah 7:19, “He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities under foot.  You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.”  Corrie famously stressed wherever she spoke, “No fishing allowed!”

Have we noticed how Micah refers to God in the third person to describe what He does, but switches dramatically to the YOU who will actually do what was just “advertised”? Lest we forget, all this concerned Israel, God’s chosen people.  They were appointed to serve as His light to all nations. Those blatantly pursuing idolatry, were sternly advised of having to pay a price no one would possibly foresee. Its truly horrific enormity can only be gauged by Christ’s agonizing death of atonement on Calvary’s cross.

No prophet ever mandated America’s Constitution to be Yahweh’s light to the cosmos under His Covenant. The idolatry of Christian Nationalism promoted by the biblically illiterate, is unacceptable to followers of Jesus grounded in Him and His Gospel.  While probing the depths of my brain for haunting memories I’d be happy to forget, I found none.  Not even when a neighbor mistakenly walked in on me sitting on the toilet, having moved into a new house exactly the same as the one we had just bought.  The same goes for the new father who blundered into the hospital room where my sore “lady parts” were receiving treatment after an episiotomy due to my big baby.  In the end, I realized that whatever we have forgiven, we can effortlessly forget – all to God’s glory!