What did you learn about in church yesterday?

What about last week?

Two weeks ago?

Don’t remember? Don’t worry. It’s not your fault.

You have amnesia.

It seems some people have amnesia. If they fail to do what God requires, it’s like they forget the word as soon as they hear it. One minute they look in the mirror, the next they forget who they are and what they look like. It sounds ridiculous, but it is true. (James 1:23-24, The Voice)

If you hear an amazing message in church and forget about it the next day, don’t feel bad. You’re not the only person this happens to. People have been struggling with short term religious amnesia for years.

You might struggle with a more long term form of amnesia, forgetting about powerful lessons you learned years ago and reverting back to your old ways.

Maybe you haven’t struggled with amnesia lately because you haven’t been to church in a while. Maybe it’s because nothing ever seems to stick.

Whatever type of amnesia you have, there is a cure.

In the film “50 First Dates” Adam Sandler plays a veterinarian who becomes enamored with a girl he sees in a restaurant, played by Drew Barrymore. After their first date she asks him to meet her again the next morning. When he returns, the girl doesn’t remember him.

What Sandler’s character doesn’t realize is the girl suffers from short term memory loss. She has a form of amnesia. Every day her brain takes her back to one year ago. She remembers nothing after that date.

Adam Sandler can’t get over her. So he seeks a cure for her amnesia. He pursues her in a new way each day, trying to get her to remember him. Nothing seems to work. Until he decides to retell her the story.

He records a video professing his love for her. He leaves her a note every night instructing her to watch the video and relearn their story every morning. And by the time she leaves the bedroom, her amnesia is cured for the day, and she is able to pick up where the story left off.

God knew his people would one day suffer from amnesia. He knew sometimes we would look in the mirror, turn around, and forget what we saw. So what did he do?

He wrote us a story. He left us handwritten accounts of His love, His passion, and His sacrifice for us.

God’s word isn’t a scientific cure for memory loss. But if you want to move beyond temporary remembrance of God’s teachings, you must immerse yourself in them daily.

It’s up to us to read the story each day and be reminded of what God did and continues to do for us.

If you’re suffering from amnesia in your walk with God, the cure is retelling the story.

 However, it is possible to open your eyes and take in the beautiful, perfect truth found in God’s law of liberty and live by it. If you pursue that path and actually do what God has commanded, then you will avoid the many distractions that lead to an amnesia of all true things and you will be blessed. (James 1:24-25, The Voice)

Do you struggle with short term church amnesia? How do you do battle against it?