Remembering God

(Some thoughts to ponder from Simon Tugwell)

Remembering God

Forgetfulness is the root of all evil
An unknown Egyptian monk

In our relationship with God, one of the main problems is that about half the time we just forget about it … it just seems to slip out of our minds …

Somehow we must find a way of remembering God that does not work in fits and starts, but that will actually last through the day; a kind of fundamental remembrance of God that will affect our heart …

And this is, in fact, what meditation is supposed to achieve .. building up a Christian memory.

As more and more of (the Bible) sinks into our memory, it is more and more likely that any passage we read will spark off a whole chain of associations …

After all God’s word is addressed to us as we really are, not as we like to present ourselves; he speaks to our heart, not our mask. It is not only that little bit of us which we have, as it were, colonized and made subject to our control, that is involved in the Christian enterprise: it is the whole (person).

If we want to keep company with God, we must be prepared to let him remind us of his ways, not at the time that suit us, but at the times that suit him… the living God chooses his own times, and will come when he is not wanted.

True scripture reading, then, true attention … involves a surrender of our independence, a letting go of our right always to be the one to choose …

If we will learn to listen, to listen deeply to the Word of God, we shall sooner or later have to realize that it is the Word of him who is truly Lord, and whose sovereign freedom is not bounded by our decisions.

From Simon Tugwell Prayer: Living with God