Do you ever get frustrated by your memory? I do.
I’ve always struggled with names, for instance, and spellings for that matter. No matter what technique I use it just never seems to work. At school I hated spelling tests and did all I could to get things right but just could not succeed. I would know how to spell them for about an hour after practice and then in the test I couldn’t remember. The same thing with names.
One of the other things is when I know something but I can’t for the life of me remember why I know it. For instance at a Local Preachers day in the Circuit I was trying to explain that I thought the magnificat was like a desperate release – it all kind of gushes out of Mary. Of course trying to justify this from the bible is hard because Mary is told her own news when Elizabeth is 6 months old and then visits Elizabeth and 3 months later John is born. This doesn’t leave much time for thinking or getting frustrated (on Mary’s part).
However, Mary does travel from Nazareth to the hills of Judea (presumably avoiding Samaria as most travelers did it seems). This is about 70 miles I believe. This would have taken at least a few days and probably more. Ample time to feel frustrated in your own thoughts I think. But could I remember this detail that I had obviously noticed before? No! I wonder how many times this has happened to me? More than I can number.
There were several other things just like that which frustrated me as well.
So it’s back to the books and reminding myself of everything that I have forgotten – how nice it would be not to have to do this – perhaps this is something I can look forward to in the next life.