Tag: Paul Nordman

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Euphoric Recall Exposed

My high school graduating class was special; we were close. We knew it then, and we know it now. We can — and often do — tell story after story, laughing harder now than we did at the time, for as we recollect our younger antics from a now older perspective, we shake our heads with a grin — “What were we thinking?!?” We will gather next summer for our 50th class reunion. Hard to believe.

Those of us who are prone to reminisce about “the good old days” when life was “carefree” do well to remember them more completely. For we are naturally prone to “euphoric recall,” the tendency to remember past experiences more positively than they actually were and not to remember the negative things associated with those events — the troubles, insecurities, danger, and confusion, for instance. Such romanticism is tantalizing and misleading, painting a revisionist reflection of the past, and dulling our present by contrast. Solomon warns against it: “Say not, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.”1 For memory bias inflates our past as something more than it was, distorts our present as something less than it is, and sets an unreasonable standard for what tomorrow must be. Yes, it is hard to compete with euphoric recall.

But when we look back more honestly, remembering the bad with the good, we can appreciate something far greater than the false foundation of selective memory: the undeterred faithfulness of our proactive God. Paul’s truthful perspective on the past resonates still today: “For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy . . .”2 This was our reality — far from euphoric — until God stepped in. Paul continues, “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”3

God’s plan for us far exceeds any other narrative we can construct through selective memory. We look back, yes, but not to return to an imaginary past, rather to gain strength for our sure and certain way forward.

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”4

Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O Lord!5 Amen.

1 Ecclesiastes 7:10 ESV
2 Titus 3:3 ESV
3 Titus 3:4-7 ESV
4 Hebrews 13:8 ESV
5 Psalm 25:6-7 ESV

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Pardon the Interruption

“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” — Yogi Berra

Nearly 125 inmates and outside volunteers recently gathered for a Kairos Prison Ministry monthly reunion. The purpose of this evening’s theme — “interruptions to the natural order of things” — was to wake us to the realization that disruptions to normalcy may be God’s invitation to encounter Him and discover His plans for us. The emcee for the evening pointed out some Biblical examples, Saul’s encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, for instance — the Pharisee would become an apostle. There was Moses at the burning bush — the one raised in Pharaoh’s household would lead the Exodus from his land. We could point to Abraham, Joseph, Job, and many more whose life changed at various points of interruption. Most likely, we could look in the mirror and find one more.

Some discontinuity comes as welcome relief, such as when hopelessness encounters hope and heartache finds healing. For instance, one prison resident recalled, “I had always set walls around me, but I took them down on my Kairos Weekend in 2003, and I have had no walls since then.” Kairos was, for him, a positive disruption, a welcome life-changer. Some interruptions, however, are traumatic, such as difficult diagnoses, relationships in wreckage, or monetary meltdown.

So what do we do when normalcy is disrupted, whether seemingly for the good, or seemingly for the bad? Trust; we must choose to trust. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”1 Notice God’s command to trust, and His promise to act. For God’s faithfulness is not dictated by circumstance, rather in sovereignty He “works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.”2 So whether God causes an interruption or merely allows it, of this we can be sure: God will subject all things to Himself, for in all things, “God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”3 God is sovereign over all things and He will act. In God we trust.

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never fail; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” — Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV

Father, You are sovereign over all things, and all things must be subjugated to Your will. Help us to remember this amid life’s unexpected interruptions and to place our trust in You. You are good. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Proverbs 3: 5-6 ESV
2 Ephesians 1:11 NIV
3 Romans 8:28 NIV

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You’re Pure for Sure

Do you remember Pure gas stations? Their slogan, “Be Sure with Pure,” was something of a losing proposition, seemingly, for in the late 60s its parent company rebranded Pure as Union 76. It seems people were willing to tolerate a little dose of impurity in their gas tanks, after all. So it is likewise with our spiritual life: we accept some measure of impurity; in fact, our sin nature prefers it. But God does not.

Sometimes we errantly look upon God’s mercy as a “replacement” for His judgment, as if sin is no longer sin — or no longer to be judged as sin — and as though sin has somehow outlasted God’s Word and won the day. For example, a pastor friend once mused about sexual sin clearly condemned in the Bible. “I think under the new covenant, it may no longer be a sin,” he said. I was stunned, for by no means will God ever taint His purity through capitulation. Such would be unmerciful to us.

To understand God’s mercy, we must understand our sin. By its nature, sin separates us from God, as David confessed in song, “No evil can dwell with You.”1 Isaiah proclaims of humankind, “your wrongdoings have caused a separation between you and your God.”2 Moreover, even “our righteous acts are like filthy rags.”3 And lest we think God grades us on a curve, James warns us, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.”4 It is into this squalor that God’s mercy brilliantly shines.

Then to understand God’s judgment, we must understand His purity. Sin must be completely eradicated, but how could a flawed people so separated by sin from God even begin atone for our sins, let alone succeed in doing so? Only God’s sinless life can sacrificially atone for a people made in His image. And so it is that God “made Him who knew no sin [Jesus] to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”5 This sinless Jesus “gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, eager for good deeds.”6 In Hebrews we read, “Such a high priest truly meets our need — one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.”7 In His purity, Jesus withstood God’s judgment and, in His mercy, He purifies all who live in Him. In Christ, we’re pure for sure. He makes us so.

Then, “since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”8

Be sure. You’re pure.

Father, thank You for Your judgment of sin, and thank You for purifying us through the sacrificial atonement of Your Son. In His name we pray. Amen.

1 Psalm 5:4 NASB
2 Isaiah 59:2 NASB
3 Isaiah 64:6
4 James 2:10 ESV
5 2 Corinthians 5:21 NASB
6 Titus 2:14 NASB
7 Hebrews 7:26 NIV
8 Hebrews 10:21-22 ESV