Remember: 3 Things Dave Taught Me About Memory

This is Dave. Dave’s been my friend for a decade, even though he can’t remember my name.

Dave was in a motorcycle accident 30 years ago, give or take. He hasn’t been able to form new memories since then. He can’t remember the date, or names—even of people he’s seen daily for years.

Dave is not unaware.

“My memory went out for lunch,” he told me after church last Sunday, with an impish grin, “and it hasn’t come home yet.”

But Dave doesn’t take his memory problem lying down. He knows he needs reminding.

So Dave always carries a notepad in his pocket. He’ll pull it out, scratch out a line or two, then tuck it away. I’ve watched this little routine countless times.

Take Care Lest You Forget

If I’m honest, I also have a memory problem. I’m not great with names, but my issue is different from Dave’s. Mine is spiritual amnesia. I am prone to forget spiritual truth.

This, I’m learning, is a perpetual problem with God’s people.

I’ve been reading Numbers and Deuteronomy, and one word keeps jumping off the pages.

The word is remember.

After 40 years of wandering, God’s people were on the verge of taking the Promised Land. Poised and ready to possess, God called them to hold a few truths in mind. I counted 14 times in Deuteronomy where God calls the Israelites to remember.

And remembering, I heard someone say, is simply the process of not forgetting.

As I talked more with Dave, and then went back to the Bible, I discovered three things that are too important for God’s children to forget.

3 Things We Can’t Afford to Forget

1. Remember Your Commitments

So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God.

—Numbers 15:40

“Why do you keep you so many notes, Dave?” I asked Dave before service.

“I can recall this,” he explained, holding up his green 3×5 spiral. “At the end of the day I look back to see if I have to follow through on any commitments.”

Dave is diligent to remember, vigilant lest he forget.

So Dave transfers his notes from his little green spiral to a big book at home.

“I don’t want to disappoint them and let them down,” he explained, shaking his head, “I don’t want to commit something to the Lord and forget about it.”

Then that grin erupts again.

“But the problem,” he adds, “is remembering to look back at the dumb notes.”

Dave knows. Our word should be gold. Christians keep their commitments, and this includes our commitment to love God and keep his commandments (2 John 1:6, John 15:10).

In the book of Numbers, the Lord told Moses to have the Israelites make tassels for the corners of their garments, “and a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner. And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, to do them” (Numbers 15:37-41).

Green notepad or blue tassel, Post-it note or iPhone reminder, it makes no difference as long as it helps us keep our commitments.

But we must remember to look.

2. Remember Who You Were

Remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you from there. 

—Deuteronomy 15:15

This command to remember who they were—namely slaves— is repeated over and over and over after the Exodus (Deuteronomy 5:15, 15:15, 16:12, 24:18, 24:22). In Deuteronomy, the call to remember their former slave status is either to urge kindness toward those who were impoverished as they once were, or to encourage thanks to God for redeeming them, “out of the land of slavery.”

The Apostle Paul calls New Testament believers to remember who they were, too.

“Remember, that at one time yo …were without Christ…having no hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:11, 12). To spur thanks to God, and unity among believers, Paul describes how those who “were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” Remembering who we were without Christ deepens our devotion to the God who saved us.

Matthew Henry, commenting on Deuteronomy 9:7, writes,

“It is good for us often to remember…our formers sins…that we may see how much we are indebted to free grace and that we never merited at God’s hand anything but wrath and the curse.”

Dave had to relearn even his own name after the accident. He thinks it took months. But he’s got it down now. And another thing he’s got down, even without consulting his notepad, is his testimony.

Dave remembers who he was. In fact, he says rehearses his testimony while he’s at his “1200-pieces-a- day assembly job.” He told me how before a certain day in 1970 he wasn’t born-again, and then after it he was.

In other words, Dave remembers being a slave, and he remembers God’s free grace.

3. Remember the Works of the Lord

You shall not be afraid of them but you shall remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt…

—Deuteronomy 7:18

God’s people have historically had a bad memory. They had selective memory right out of Egypt, remembering well the “free food,” but forgetting that they were slaves (see Numbers 11). The food may have been free, but they were not.

But apart from selective memory, and probably worse, is this third thing they forgot.

In Deuteronomy 6:12, God’s people are told, “take care lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”

They should have been taking notes on their papyrus pads. God wanted them to remember his mighty works; how he free them from Egypt: the plagues and the Exodus and the crossing of the Red Sea.

Dave told me that one of things he tries to remember while he’s at his work center is— I quote— “the works of God. I consult my notebook to remember things of this sort.”

Remember the wondrous works that he has done,
his miracles, and the judgments he uttered…

PSALM 105:15 (ESV)

There are practical ways we can overcome our own spiritual amnesia, our forgetfulness of God’s works. Ben Reoach describes seven here. No surprise that one tip is to keep a journal.

Like I said, Dave definitely knows what he’s doing.

I Shall Remember

I don’t know all of Dave’s story, but I know it’s not all rosy. Apart from the physical and mental impact of the accident, I gather that close relationships have been strained. And Dave would like to be married.

“I’ve had some nasty times,” he sighed.

But Dave sees the silver lining. “A blessing of having a bad memory is that when someone treats me like poop, I forget and when I see them again I treat them real nice.”

Which brings us to Psalm 77:7-9, where the psalmist ponders: 

“Will the Lord reject forever? And will He never be favorable again? Has His lovingkindness ceased forever? Has His promise come to an end forever? Has God forgotten to be gracious?”

Dave could ask those same questions. Maybe you could too.

Living in the group home around the corner from the church wasn’t Dave’s dream. Despite decades of prayers for his memory to be restored, he still can’t remember names without his notepad. And Dave would really like to be married.

But Dave does what the psalmist did, right after he wondered if God’s “lovingkindness had ceased forever.”

Remembering Is Effortful

The psalmist did not end with doubt. In Psalm 77:11-12 he rouses himself:

“I shall remember the deeds of the LORD; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old. I will meditate on all Your work and muse on Your deeds. Your way, O God, is holy; What god is great like our God?”

John Piper says that this sort of remembering is intentional and effortful.

The central Biblical strategy for coming out of darkness and discouragement and doubt is a conscious effort of the mind. Notice these strong words of intentionality: “I shall remember . . . Surely I will remember” (verse 11); “I will meditate . . . and [I will] muse” (verse 12). These are conscious acts that he chooses to do. This is the fight of faith. This is the fight for delight. It is the opposite of passivity and resignation. This is a strategy of life.

Sermon, “I Will Meditate On Your Works And Muse On Your Deeds“

This is what Dave does, what he consciously chooses to do—this strategy of life. Dave totes his notepad and opens it up and diligently jots things down.

He remembers his commitments and who he was. Then Dave rehearses his testimony, not before the motorcycle accident, but before he knew Christ.

And Dave remembers the Lord. He ponders the works and ways of his God.

“You Meet… Those Who Remember You In Your Ways”

Before church and again after, I asked Dave if I could share this photo and tell about his memory trouble and how he makes a valiant effort to remember.

“Of course,” he said. “God gave this to me. That’s what it means to be a Christian.”

When I assured him that I’d only use his first name, without skipping a beat and againt with that impish grin, he said, “Use my last name, and share my phone number, too.” Dave would like a wife.

At the end of both little interviews, Dave chimed in, because he’s somehow put Romans 8:28 to memory, maybe by writing it over and over in his notepad and then transferring it to his big book.

“All things work together for good,” he quoted. “No matter how nasty it gets—it all works together for good if you love God.”

So while Dave awaits the Day he can remember his friends’ names, he already remembers God’s ways.

There is a promise or two in Isaiah 64 for my friend Dave, and for each of us who remember.

“From of old no one has heard
    or perceived by the ear,
no eye has seen a God besides you,
    who acts for those who wait for him.
You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,
    those who remember you in your ways.“

—Isaiah 64:4-5a (ESV)