In his novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Garcia Marquez describes a village suffering from an insomnia plague. As the plague lingers, it gradually causes the loss of memory. To try and salvage memory, a man developed a plan labeling everything: "With an inked brush he marked everything with its name: table, chair, clock, door, bed. He went on to the corral and marked the animals and plants: cow, goat, pig, hen ... banana."
As their memory faded the labeling needed to be even more explicit. A sign on a cow read: "This is the cow. She must be milked every morning so that she will produce milk, and the milk must be boiled in order to be mixed with coffee.” Thus they were living in a reality that was slipping away, momentarily captured by words.
Are we so wrapped up in the busyness of existence or moving on to the next thing that we are forgetting life and we are operating in a pseudo-reality that is but momentarily captured by words or feelings?*
Memory is necessary because it informs our context and our identity. Praise powerfully sharpens our memory. Recounting the mighty acts of God – acts of creation, rescue, reconciliation, and restoration – remind us of who He is and who we are, for in Him we find our truest identity.
Let the words of your mouth and the meditations of your heart be acceptable in His sight – attitudes and actions that reflect what God has done, and what He will do as we live with the end in view.
I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more. My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all the day, for their number is past my knowledge. With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come; I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone. – Psalm 71:14–16
*Adapted from Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (Harper Perennial Classics, 2006), pp. 46-48
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