A HAUNTED HOUSE

Most of us have a Memory Storehouse of greater or lesser size. My Storehouse is hidden from sight. In fact, I think it is haunted because when I approach it, I can hear voices from within. Not happy voices, but moaning and groaning.

I'm the only one who has a key. I keep my Memory Storehouse locked, as you probably do, so that the memories won't get out. Many of us go to our Memory Storehouse often so that the grass on the path leading up to it doesn't even have a chance to grow. The door doesn't squeak since I use it frequently and keep it well-oiled.

What's in mine? Probably the things you keep in yours too. Not the sins I have committed, since as soon as I confess and repent of them, they are forgiven by God. (Psalm 103:12) He said He remembers them no more, so I don't have to keep bringing them up. God does, however, remember the good works of His people done in gratitude for what He has done for us.

So what's in My Memory Storehouse? The shelves are filled with the things other people may have done to me or against me. Perhaps I suffered injustices, hurts, offenses, abuses, insults, even have been a victim of some persecutions, or have been disrespected or put down by someone. Such things I suffered are invisible, so you can't see them on my shelves. Nevertheless I can see them. They are familiar to me. I keep them for years often dusting them off and polishing them each time I come in to inspect them.

My Storehouse is my comfort zone where I can enjoy my solitary pity party. Each time I pick up one of the offenses, it obliges by opening up the fresh wound again. It becomes as vivid to me as the day it happened, and I hurt all over again. I overlay it with bitterness against the person who supposedly injured me. My mental and physical health is affected by those trips to my Memory Storehouse. Certainly this dredging-up practice affects my spiritual life. Nevertheless, I continue going there....

We hear so much about “offenses” these days in our political correctness world. We are cautioned not to say or do anything that might offend someone else. We are warned to back off from engaging even in righteous behavior or being too overt in our worship, Christian practice, Christian speech or personal purity lest someone be offended—and actually initiate a law suit against us!

What is this sudden sensitivity about being “offended?” An offense is defined by the dictionary as “something that causes someone displeasure.” Big deal? To be offended seems to mean that what someone said or did didn't "please" us. It has such emotional and prideful overtones. Why must I be so careful about my precious, sensitive ego that I expect everyone else to cater to my feelings and to “walk on eggs” so to speak when they are around me? Why do I insist that they agree with me? Are they responsible for my pleasure? Am I so emotionally fragile as a Christian?

My Memory Storehouse is chocked full of things done or said to me—I am the one who is offended! The shame should be on me! I need to deal with those things. Possibly the persons who committed some transgression against me never even knew they offended me. It's also probable that most of them have forgotten the incident. Some may no longer be in my sphere of influence or have died. The incident that happened to me may have taken place decades ago. Perhaps only I noticed it or I might even have imagined it. But I torment myself by keeping every such hurt and injustice cataloged, filed, and fresh in my memory.

There is seldom justice on this earth. The wicked prosper, the righteous are often down-trodden, taken advantage of and made to suffer. But none of these actions escape the Lord's attention. He has laid them up in store and sealed them up in His Heavenly Treasure house. He promised to mete out justice at the time of His judgment. Deuteronomy 32:34 declares, as God speaks, “Is it not laid up in store with Me, sealed up in My treasuries?” He said, “Rejoice, O nations, with His people; For He will avenge the blood of His servants, and will render vengeance on His adversaries, and will atone for His land and His people,” verse 43. Although directing His promise to Israel, God's principle is the same in dealing with us who confess Him as Lord.

Why, then, don't we just let those offenses go? It's not my business either to hang on to them or to try to even the score. They will be dealt with by God once and for all in His time and way. Let's pull those putrefying wounds and hurts and offenses off of our memory shelf one by one. Let's forgive the person who offended us, leave the consequences to God, and forget it. Let's not let another day pass allowing those rotten memories to contaminate our minds and spirits in the present. Let's close that haunted Memory Storehouse door forever, lock it, throw away the key—and never come near it again.

When I've deposited all those injustices and offenses at the foot of the Cross, I must leave them there and go away empty-handed. What a relief to let God even up old scores when He renders His divine justice!

Psalm 119:165 "Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them."