Our minds are designed to forget a great deal of what we
process (scientifically this is actually our inability to recall more so than
actual erasing input stimuli). This is
more of a blessing than it appears at first glance. Oh I am sure there are those of us who wish
we could remember (and perhaps relive) the sight, smell, and taste of our first
chocolate birthday cake, the feel of a freshly ironed favorite shirt, or the
touch of a long-gone former love. To be
able to recall and reprocess sounds - like the first happy noise a child makes,
or the affectionate whimpers of a puppy long since grown and gone would be a
wonderful gift. But the converse of
these pleasant memories would then also be as graphically clear in our minds. Every unkind word spoken to us in anger,
particularly by those we love or whose opinions we value – their tone, their
malice, their intent to hurt us – all of it crystal clear in our
conscience. The pain we felt from
breaking or spraining bones, muscles, or joints. I can assure you reliving a Kidney stone
incident would hardly be a wonderful gift.
To reprocess our inputs would allow us to relive the tender and the
good, but it would also force us to relive that which would completely undo us
physically or emotionally.
So if by design we seem to let go of most of the inputs of
our past, how do we arrive at a sentiment regarding the good-old-days? To endure, we selectively let go of painful
memories, weeding them out, and reducing the impact of them from the day-to-day
of our lives in the past. What remains
is an image of a time long ago, but not an actual recollection. The image, now filled with only the positive
influences, is easily remembered fondly.
And we wax sentimental over the idea
of our memories, more so than the real ones.
This is a function of human biology, but why? Why are our minds, which are capable of
processing and storing nearly infinite amounts of data in a single brain cell,
reduced to functioning at less than 8% of our capacity?
The answer quite simply is mercy. Our world is so full of pain and misery from
the cancer of sin, that were we to process it fully and realize it in total, we
would be unable to endure it. The weight
of guilt that comes from the full realization of an act of evil by choice is
more than the human psyche is able to bear.
The inability to forget, or the clear and vivid distinctions of a full
sensory reliving of a horrific event would scar our fragile mental state beyond
what we can learn to cope with. Our
inability to recall, is a defense mechanism against the weight of evil that
inhabits this world, and infects our choices.
It is our God’s mercy to reduce our ability to recall, and help us weed
out the pain in our lives. There is no
evolutionary reason for this phenomenon only a spiritual one. Evolution would imply that our brains would
only continue to improve functionality not lose it over time. Our ability to process and recall sensory
information would be constantly improving were evolution and the absence of God
a reality. But while our species was
created with the ability to adapt to its environment, it did not evolve into
this, it was created into it. And the
reason our minds seem to be functioning at further reduced rates over time, is
in part due to our creator knowing how much we can stand.
Another reason we appear to be functioning at less than our
capacity, is from our propensity to do evil.
The logic here is tricky, so stay with me for a bit. If by increasing our minds to a higher functioning
percentage could we not see art more beautiful than Leonardo or Michael Angelo;
or be exposed to music more beautiful than Beethoven; or innovate more than
Henry Ford or Bill Gates; would this not be to the benefit of all mankind? Yes.
But then apply the same logic to the far more populous segment of man
who would choose to do evil with this increased mental capacity. Ted Bundy, Saddam Hussein, Adolph Hitler to
name a few; these men who chose to do great evil to others during their
lifetimes might have magnified the impact of their deeds tenfold by increasing
their mental capacity to invent new ways to do their chosen evil. So then does God choose to keep us
cognitively stupid? No. We are able to process more than enough
information to choose to do good or evil.
And we are able to understand in very clear terms what the results of
our choices do. We are accountable, but
not genius, at least not in absolute terms.
There was however a time on this earth when the Good Old
Days was a real phenomenon, not just a clouded view of imagery from the
past. It was a time none of us now
living can remember when God Himself walked the earth in the evenings and
communed with man face to face. This
social intimacy in the garden of Eden between God and man will resume again in
a new world He creates for us. At that
time, the need to restrict our ability to process and recall will
disappear. We will be able to recall in
full, relive in full, as well as acquire new memories in clear vivid
distinction. Our ability to create and
imagine will be unrestricted because we will have already decided how to apply
what we have been given. No more will
there be the imaginings of serial killers, and sadists. Then only the gifts of those who wish to
serve others and enrich all. A heaven
full of Beethoven’s, Michael Angelo’s, and hopefully Switchfoot’s (sorry, I
think these guys are as good as Beethoven was in the Christian rock
world).
When our new lives are a reality, and evil no longer exists
anywhere in the Universe, forever abandoned by the collective choice of all,
our Good Old Days will have returned.
Each new day will be filled with wonder, excitement, joy, and unbridled
passion for life. We are not destined to
experience these things with a reduced capacity to enjoy them, rather we are
destined to appreciate each new experience in a way we cannot even imagine
right now. Our senses so keenly aware of
each nuance, our minds eager to absorb new information with unlimited ability
to process information – imagine the calculating power of a supercomputer
combined with the emotional capacity of matching prowess, added to a sensory
system with hearing better than dogs, eyesight better than eagles, sensitivity
to touch, etc. – all of this is HOW we experience the wonders of the Universe
God has prepared for us. And we will
retain all of this information forever without dimming, distortion, or the need
to weed out the evil as evil will no longer be a part of the equation.
Rather than believe that some point of my past in this world
of pain, was somehow better than my present, I choose to look forward to a time
when Good Days will have a new definition.
I choose now to forsake evil and follow God, allowing Him to change the
core of who I am, so that one day in a new world I will be able to say and know
I too, have collectively chosen to forsake all evil forever. I look forward to absence of the influence of
evil in our lives, and to a time when our brains can finally perform at the
level they were intended …
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