Reclamation center through God's grace
Point Loma, California.
Quote found on the prayer walk that lovingly reached into my soul:
"I am inclined to believe that God's chief purpose in giving us memory is to enable us to go back in time so that if we don't play those roles right the first time around, we can still have another go at it now. We cannot undo our old mistakes or their consequences any more than we can erase old wounds that we have both suffered and inflicted, but through the power that memory gives us of thinking, feeling and imagining our way back through time we can at long last finally finish with the past in the sense of removing its power to hurt us and other people, to stunt our growth as human beings.
The sad thins that happen long ago will always remain a part of who we are just as the glad and gracious things will too, but instead of being a burden guilt, recrimination and regret that make us constantly stumble as we go, even the saddest things can become, once we have made peace with them, a source of wisdom and strength for the journey that still lies ahead.
It is through memory that we are able to reclaim much of our lives that we have long since written off, by finding that in everything that has happened to us over the years. God was offering us possibilities of new life and healing which, though we may have missed at one time, we can still choose and be brought to life by and healed by all these years later.
from: Telling Secrets by F Buechner
Quote found on the prayer walk that lovingly reached into my soul:
"I am inclined to believe that God's chief purpose in giving us memory is to enable us to go back in time so that if we don't play those roles right the first time around, we can still have another go at it now. We cannot undo our old mistakes or their consequences any more than we can erase old wounds that we have both suffered and inflicted, but through the power that memory gives us of thinking, feeling and imagining our way back through time we can at long last finally finish with the past in the sense of removing its power to hurt us and other people, to stunt our growth as human beings.
The sad thins that happen long ago will always remain a part of who we are just as the glad and gracious things will too, but instead of being a burden guilt, recrimination and regret that make us constantly stumble as we go, even the saddest things can become, once we have made peace with them, a source of wisdom and strength for the journey that still lies ahead.
It is through memory that we are able to reclaim much of our lives that we have long since written off, by finding that in everything that has happened to us over the years. God was offering us possibilities of new life and healing which, though we may have missed at one time, we can still choose and be brought to life by and healed by all these years later.
from: Telling Secrets by F Buechner
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