Go Where You Have no Memories

We rarely discover, we remember.

_Abraham Joshua Heschel

There are few things more disconcerting than being in a situation where we have no intimate point of reference. (No memories.)

That is exactly where I was a year ago about this time. I was preparing to go on a ministry trip to Bulgaria. Oh I put a good face on it and talked the talk, for I was taking several ministry leaders with me. But truth be known, I didn’t really want to go.

Why?

Oh it was usual…

I’m busy.

The long flight.

Blah, blah, blah…

But the real reason was, I didn’t have any memories there.

I had never been to Bulgaria, I knew no one there, I couldn’t talk their language, I didn’t know their customs, I’d never eaten their food. Bottom line, I knew virtually nothing about that part of that part of the world and I didn’t like it. It was way out of my comfort zone.

But looking back a year later, I know that is why it was so helpful. I am still reaping dividends from that investment.

The same is true throughout my life. It was those “no memory/no point of reference” moments that were where I made the greatest advances and learned the most.

You say it was good…compared to what?

As hard as we try to be unprejudiced, we take our memories with us into every situation and those memories color everything we see.

Whether it’s going to church or going to Chick-fil-A, we compare the service or the chicken by all the other church services and fried chicken (including grandma’s) we’ve eaten before. Did we learn anything? Perhaps. But mostly we just added another memory to the on-going some ole chapter of our life.

What we didn’t do, is learn anything new.

We didn’t really test our limits. We didn’t plow new territory . We didn’t grow. At best we just got a little better at being what we already were.

The ONE THING for today: Truly growing and advancing in life requires going where you’ve never gone before. Follow the path you don’t remember. That’s where the adventure is.

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.

Hebrews 11:8, NIV