Coming back to San Francisco is a treat. After a decade of living here, the memories are fresh, pleasurable, and encouraging. After all, it was in San Francisco where I first had a real date with Cherry. This is home to my first “job”. I grew up a lot in the city. Watching the morning runners along the wharf takes me back to the first marathon I had the privilege to run. Listening to the clanking of the lines on sailboats throws me back into foul-weather gear and times spent sailing on the bay. The familiar orange of Giant fans is comforting.
These triggers are personal, nobody else sees them quite the way that I do and in many ways it is comforting. When Carli starting getting flashbacks to scenes when she was two and three years old, I found myself going into memories that I had long thought were buried in yesterday’s graveyard. I don’t know what triggered the expanded view but it was very scary! It was as if someone else was remembering my past. When you put the light on suddenly everything was out on view. Some of it was very ugly!
John recorded the Angel’s warning of God’s view of the Great Babylon. It didn’t look any better! “Her sins stink to high Heaven; God has remembered every evil she’s done.” (Revelation 18.5)
Embedded in this sentence is my fear. Will others, especially God, remember everything from my past? Will the legacy, complete tale, haunt me forever? How can I deal with what cannot be changed?
It is hard to remember, and believe, that the God, at least the one I know, cares only about the present. God has processes that deal with your yesterday and mine. The question is simple. What am I going to do about today? In the presence we hold the keys to our final legacy – with God or on our own. It is in the now that our future is written. Greed and self’s yesterday can be left behind. Compassion, mercy, and acceptance can be today’s legacy.
