(A little long due to skipping a week)
A common form of small talk is remembering “the good ol’ days.”
I don’t know that I’ve been alive long enough to refer to any point in my life as “the good ol’ days,” but I know I do it nonetheless. I make small talk with my high school friends remembering sports, and other things about high school.
I’ve hear it explained once, and apparently people who aren’t in contact consistently dwell on the past so often because that’s what they have in common. They share common past memories, because those are the only common memories.
I thought about this topic this week because it is something I am terrible with. I don’t dwell on the past a lot. I am very happy with my present situation, and I look forward to a future as blessed and fulfilling as my past has been, but…
With that mentality, I am also terrible at keeping contact with friends that I don’t see as often. I go on (as we must) without bothering to keep in contact. Case in point: One of my best friends from high school is currently living about 20 minutes from my apartment, and tonight I called him for the first time in months. I still haven’t bothered to see him.
Additionally, I have kept terrible contact with the friends I made this summer. These were people that I made a very strong connection with, and formed solid friendships with. Since this summer I have texted one person about football a couple of times, and had a phone conversation with another (he called me). No contact with anyone else outside of a couple of Facebook comments.
I’m not just getting down on myself though. I am aware that as people go to different places they don’t always keep in contact with everyone they’ve ever met, but I make absolutely no effort. If someone else doesn’t go out of their way to keep in contact with me, I’m content to just move on.
On that note, I want to get to the bright side of this all…
Memories.
God gave us these wonderful things called memories. I don’t just move on and forget about important people. I have complex memories about them, and their personalities. This is amazing!
I can have stayed out of contact with someone for an extended time, and when I do see, or talk to them again, memories come flooding back.
I remember the activities we were in, and the jokes we shared.
I remember staying up at a friend’s house late playing games, watching a movie, breaking a light fixture, or a ping pong table.
I remember running from a tiny puppy, and instead of receiving help my friend rolled on the ground laughing.
I remember screaming happy birthday as loud as 10 year old children can.
I remember crying after my final football game not because I took losing that hard, but because it was the last time I would play the best game in the world, along the best classmates/teammates/friends a guy could ask for .
I remember the first girlfriend I ever had, and her smile.
I remember the first girlfriend that I didn’t have because I had the social maturity of 12-year-old (this was when I was 17).
I remember helping a friend through depression, and seeing their smile when they spoke of meeting “The One.”
I remember the first person I saw receive Christ. I remember laying on a trampoline in Medford talking openly with people I had known for a month as if we had been friends for years.
I remember when I realized that Christianity wasn’t just “my parents religion,” but the greatest truth I had ever realized.
I remember all of these things, and I can’t help but praise God for it. He made it so that through electrical impulses in our brains (that some of the best minds in the world still can’t completely figure out). If that isn’t awesome to you, then I believe you are truly missing out on something wonderful.So, until next week.
All for the Glory of God.
