Those Flashbulb Moments

I am sure there are events which have occurred throughout your lifetime that have become forever ingrained in your memories. You likely remember exactly where you were, what you were doing, and who you were with. Those events are often referred to as flashbulb moments; events stored in a complete and vivid way that capture the context, the event, and your emotional reaction to it.

For you, it might be when the news broke that President John F. Kennedy was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, 1963. Or maybe it was when you learned that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been fatally shot by James Earl Ray on April 4, 1968, as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. Or how about just two months later, on June 5, 1968, when Robert F. Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan while addressing supporters at the Ambassador Hotel after winning the California primary. All three of those flashbulb moments have conspiracy theories attached to them. One event, so big and so traumatic, needs no description; it is simply remembered as 9/11. I remember everything about that day, including hugging my wife and daughters tighter than ever before.

I will never forget the Apollo 11 flight that, for the first time ever, put two men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr., on the surface of the moon. I was eleven years old at the time and clearly remember watching the television with my family as the Eagle made a soft landing on the Sea of Tranquility. About six hours later, while eating Jiffy Pop, we watched in anticipation as Armstrong slowly descended down the lunar module’s ladder before stepping onto the surface of the moon. It just one month later that I tried to talk my parents into allowing me to go to Woodstock, but sadly for me, to no avail. Seriously, what could possibly go wrong with an 11 year old attending three days of peace and music?

I vividly remember how beautiful my wife looked on our wedding day! And walking both our daughters down the aisle on their wedding days, not much compares to it! I also remember my Grandpa, who was born in 1899, talking about his vivid memories of Herbert Morrison’s emotion-filled radio reporting of the Hindenburg disaster on May 6, 1937. I will never forget what we were doing on the morning of Sunday, January 29, 2017, when we got a phone call telling us that my wife’s mother had been killed in a car accident. For the next few hours it was as if time stopped.

Those flashbulb moments, we remember them forever. Not only are they vividly burned into our memories, they also often change the course of our lives, or at least how we go about walking out life. If you are a Jesus follower, do you remember the good things God has done for you? I hope that you can think of a time in which God has done great and wonderful things in your life. But if you are like me, you sometimes have a memory problem. God’s goodness changes us, or at least it should, but when the next trial or test comes, we are quick to forget what God has done in the past, and instead, we worry and fret.

In Psalm 103:2-5, David says this – “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” In another translation, the passage begins this way – “Praise the Lord, I tell myself, and never forget the good things He does for me.”

So, my challenge to you – just as you vividly remember those flashbulb moments in your life, will you also strive to remember the wonderful God flashbulb moments? You know, the good things God has done in your life. Remembering them might not change your situation but doing so will change how you walk through that situation, knowing and trusting that God always has your back!

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