Count Your Blessings #15 – Memories

I have recently been remembering my early Christian life by listening to some sermons that I heard back then. They are available online by a preacher called Tony Campolo. Like many itinerant preachers he gives the same message in a number of places so the talk online isn’t quite the same as the one I listened to, but it was enough to rekindle my memories of those day. I was lovely to feel those days.

In one of the talks he recounts a survey of 50 people over the age of 95 who were asked what they would do differently if they had life to live all over again. They responded by focusing on the following: 

• They would risk more. 
• They would reflect more. 
• They would do more things that would live on after they were dead.

What an amazing challenge. But what does live on after you die, and then it came to me memories. Not my memories, but the memories of those around me, and especially the memories of those I dearly love. Especially the memories of my children, Jonathan and Emily.

The other Sunday, Sue and I were in the rare situation where neither of us needed to be at church. We had an evening off. As it was the last day of our holiday we decided to break free a bit and build some memories. On this occasion we drove up into the Trough of Bowland where there is a stream which is deep enough in a few places to swim. We took swimming gear and paddling shoes. Though it wasn’t the warmest evening ever both Jonathan and Emily decided that being in the water was definitely more interesting than sitting on the bank. Jonathan stuck to paddling and throwing stones; Emily wanted to get in deeper and deeper though. She wanted to risk more; she wanted to really swim. We steadily made our way down the stream until we found a pool big enough and she loved it.

Sue and I both sat on the banks and reflected. We revelled in the joy that our children were getting from the simple, yet profound, adventure of life. We breathed in the beauty of the gently flowing brook and the green hills, lit by the summer sun slowly making its way down into Morecombe Bay.

The great thing about memories is that they don’t need to cost anything. You don’t need to pay £65 for a day pass into a theme park. What you need to do is something that is either new or something that is old and dearly loved; a ritual. It’s one of those strange contradictions. The things that build memories are either things that are novel and adventurous, or things that have become part of your family ritual. When I say ritual I am talking about those things that we do time and time again with the same love and excitement as the first time we did them.

I am sure that Emily will remember the game we play every evening. Emily and I have this ritual of racing to bed. She (nearly) always wins and I (nearly) always let her. We have played this game thousands of times we will probably play it thousands more; it is our ritual and we love it.

We love to watch local television programmes that tell us about things going on in our area, because it opens our eyes to new adventures. These programmes show us things that we would never have thought of. It’s OK to be spontaneous, but sometimes adventures take a little planning.

The whole chastney family love going to church, and it feels strange when we don’t. I pray that the ritual of going to church will live on after I die, in the lives of my children. I pray that their memories of what God can do in his people will stay with them, and that they will love Him too. That would be a real blessing.

Jesus gave us a ritual – we call it Communion. He gave is this ritual to remind us; to make the memory live.

Taking bread, he blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, given for you. Eat it in my memory.”

In many many ways he also challenged us to adventure too.