Somethings We Never Forget

Things have changed over the years. When I was a young boy living in Tennessee my Dad was one of the first to purchase what then was the state of the art in electronic media a large vacuum tube radio with a battery larger than most car batteries today.

Very few families owned one and they would gather at our home to listen through the static to the first variety shows, radio dramas, Grand Old Opera, heavy weight boxing championships, the Lone Ranger and the news; with only a handful of stations available. There was a sense of magic in hearing voices coming from the other side of the country and even across the ocean, at times.

Today, radio is mostly listened to in the car, if you are not listening to your IPOD or satellite radio. My first radio was a Sear’s plain AM portable radio; it would be impossible for you to find one in the store today, they are antiques. Now we have digital radio, 600 channels of satellite television, MP3’s, pod casting, Internet telephone calls, etc.

We have become so spoiled by modern technology that we are upset when it takes more than seconds for a web site to load a streaming video being sent live from the other side of the globe!

I can remember in the early 70’s the sensation for our family was a game called PONG which you played on TV – it was the first electronic ping pong game, allowing you to move a vertical line at each end of the screen and deflect a white dot back and forth – a far cry from full animation Madden NFL football!

Why, just 50 years ago, families would patiently sit while someone moved the rabbit ears antenna on the black and white TV, even adding some aluminum foil to the ends, just to get the picture a little clearer – which meant the picture quit rolling vertically, but still looked like there was a light snow storm going on.

We sometimes forget our family relationships. When something is new and we have never experienced it before, we take care of it, look forward to the experience and have a sense of wonder about it. But in time, it becomes something we take for granted and expect it to always be there, forgetting how blessed we felt at one time just to have it. Sadly, this is even truer at times for personal relationships between friends and families.

For example the excitement of a wedding can, over time with responsibilities, children and careers, fade until one year we wake up and wonder what happened to the couple who were so excited about spending their lives together.

The marriages and other relationships which not only last but get better every day are those where the individuals never lose their sense of appreciation for each other, their sense of awe and blessing to have had the opportunity to be involved with another person’s life, the wonder that with all their fault’s another person loves and cares for them, their desire to always be there for the other person, the commitment to not allow the little things to get in the way of the truly meaningful and the willingness to forgive AND forget.

Loving someone is a choice which we re-affirm each day because of who they are, what they have and will continue to mean to us and the joy we find being a part of each other’s lives.

Please, don’t forget your relationship with your Heavenly Father! The most important relationship we have difficulty maintaining a proper appreciation for is the relationship between us and our heavenly Father.

When we are first overwhelmed by the knowledge that God loves us, that we have sinned against Him and instead of being mad at us, He wants to forgive us and provide for us a new life of righteousness, unbelievable joy and a peace not determined by current conditions, but trust in His wisdom and provision – we cannot wait to spend time with Him, read about Him in His Word, learn how to follow His example and spend time with others who share our love for Him. But over time the new seems to wear off and we lose the excitement.

Did God change? Of course not, we become distracted by things we believe are better than God can provide or which we think will allow us to achieve what we really need and want without God. Adam and Eve were the first, but not the last to be distracted by the apples along the way; those things which promise to bring happiness on our own terms, without God, but in the end fail to deliver. Jesus said it this way to the church in Ephesus whose discipleship had become a ritual without enthusiasm – “…you have left your first love”.

I wonder sometimes how much we think about the fact that God’s entire focus from the beginning of time has been on doing all He can to make it possible for us to establish, maintain and expand a personal relationship with Him.

Because God loved you and me so deeply and so wanted to have an eternal relationship with us, He sent His only Son to live, die and rise again so we would not have to be separated from Him by sin.

In return, we live far too much of our lives as if He does not even exist; until there is some crisis and then we expect Him to respond immediately and in the way we have decided He should.

My challenge today is to take time to appreciate the immeasurable greatness and wonder of the relationship that I have with God through His Son Jesus Christ and to consider the opportunities I have been overlooking to strengthen my relationship with Him.

My prayer for you today is that you might consider taking time this week to have a similar talk with the One who loves you most and loved you first, before you even were you!

MONDAY MORNING MESSAGE / FRED G. CHILTON