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Seven Second Memory

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On March 27, 1985 Clive Wearing, an acknowledged expert in early music at the height of his career with BBC Radio, contracted herpesviral encephalitis, a herpes simplex virus that attacked his central nervous system. Wearing developed a profound case of total amnesia as a result of his illness. Because of damage to the hippocampus he is completely unable to form lasting new memories. His memory of events lasts between seven and thirty seconds. He spends every day ‘waking up’ every 20 seconds or so, ‘restarting’ his consciousness once the timespan of his short-term memory has elapsed.

In the book of Philippians 3:13-14 the Apostle Paul describes a spiritual form of amnesia when he writes: but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,14 I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward. AMPC

Jesus encouraged this amnesia in regard to our own lives when He exhorted His followers: And He said to all, If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself [disown himself, forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, refuse and give up himself] and take up his cross daily and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also]. Luke 9:23 AMPC

In 2002 the BBC released a documentary about Sigmund Freud titled, Century of the Self. As I googled this title other options emerged: A Journey to the Center of Self, the Center for Self-Actualization, the Center for Self, How to Center Yourself, etc., etc. Whether it’s a century or a day, the journey to being centered in our selves doesn’t take long requiring no money, or psychological experts. You don’t have to travel to Tibet or get on the Marrakesh Express to discover Nirvana. All it takes is a look in the mirror. The true cosmic shift comes when you lift up your eyes, center in on the moment, becoming a “there you are” human being (instead of human doing). For some that takes a journey of a lifetime but others have looked upon Jesus. Time has stood still and all of a sudden the World of “Me” is not that important. All of a sudden you develop Holy Ghost Amnesia forgetting what is behind and straining towards what’s ahead. And in the midst of the journey you begin seeing “human do-ings” searching to become “human be-ings” again. Imagine being given the Grace to forget ALL that’s behind. All the hurt, offenses, regrets, pains and failures. Imagine praying for the Grace to see others forgetting what is behind, forgiving, and releasing others from the debt we think they owe us. Imagine being a “there you are” person – instead of a “here I am” person. Imagine, looking in to a person and seeing the treasures God sees. What would happen to our self-centered world? Would we find ourselves – “human be-ings?” Try this experiment all week.

Breakthrough!

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Nik Ripken, in the book The Insanity of God, records the story of perseverance in the light of dark circumstances: Dmitri was a Russian pastor leading a house church. As townspeople heard of the powerful manifestations of God taking place among the worshipers, more and more crowded into Dimitri’s home to hear about Jesus. One night, more than 150 people gathered. The authorities couldn’t let this continue, so they sent Dmitri a thousand kilometers away from his family and locked him in prison. He was the only believer among 1,500 hardened criminals. His captors tortured him to force him to renounce his faith, but Dmitri held firm. 

“For seventeen years in prison, every morning at daybreak, Dmitri would stand at attention by his bed. As was his custom, he would face the east, raise his arms in praise to God, and then he would sing a HeartSong to Jesus.” The other prisoners would laugh, curse, and jeer. “They’d bang metal cups against the iron bars in angry protest. They threw food and sometimes human waste to try to shut him up and extinguish the only true light shining in that dark place every morning at dawn” One day, Dmitri found a full sheet of paper and a pencil in the prison yard. “I rushed back to my jail cell, and I wrote every Scripture reference, every Bible verse, every story, and every song I could recall.” He posted it on a damp pipe in his cell as an offering to the Lord. His jailor saw it, beat and punished him, and threatened him with execution. As jailors dragged him from his cell and down the corridor, “the strangest thing happened. Before they reached the door leading to the courtyard—before stepping out into the place of execution—fifteen hundred hardened criminals stood at attention by their beds. They faced the east and they began to sing . . . the HeartSong that they had heard Dmitri sing to Jesus every morning for all those years.” Shocked, his jailors released their hold and backed away from him. “Who are you?” one demanded. Dimitri straightened his back and stood as tall and as proud as he could. “I am a son of the Living God, and Jesus is His name!” The guards returned him to his cell and shortly afterward, he was released and returned to his family. 

The suffering servant of God, Job, stated something similar in the dark night of his soul: Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.(Job 13:15) Dimitri, like Job, was willing to continue praising God, trusting Him, even when in the midst of severe mental, emotional, and physical suffering. Dimitri kept singing – kept believing – even in his darkest hour. We all know the rest of the story: breakthrough! In the dark night of your soul, while you are searching and groping to find Jesus in His hiddenness, don’t stop singing. Don’t stop waiting, and trusting. He’s not that far. Press on into His Presence by faith.