Memory Lane

The brain is an amazing part of the body. It does so many things that fascinate me. One of these things is what I want to write about today. The way that the brain stores memories is something that I don't know much about. I think there's special sections for long-term and short-term memories, which, when affected, leads to things like Dementia. I think that's about all I know.

But I don't really want to write about the biology of memories, but rather how they come back to you. There's so much that we put into our brains on a day to day basis, that it's crazy to think that anything actually sticks. All the information about what we're seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching all goes into our brains and is processed. You won't remember everything that you do/say, but chances are you'll remember a great deal of it. Yet that's only short-term stuff. What about the long-term things? How is it that we can remember exactly how we felt at our Nanna's funeral, or just what we said on that holiday we took with high school friends to Queenscliff? I don't have a good memory at the best of times, yet these feelings, words and images come streaming back when triggered.

Many different things trigger those memories, including sounds, smells, words, photos or thinking about a person/place. I'm sure there's more things. It makes me think of a great big filing system in your brain that's constantly being looked through as the day goes by. Your brain cross checking each thing that happens to see if it's like something that's happened before.

There's two other things regarding memory that I briefly want to mention. The first is the differences between people's memories. I don't mean the different abilities to remember things, but rather that different people can remember different things about the same situation. For example a picnic. One person remembers the fight with the wasp that happened which ended up with them catching the wasp in their cup. The other person remembers the food that was there and the reason for the picnic. (In this senario I'm assuming the picnic was sometime in the past). I guess this has to do with people's personalities and the things that they find important in the first place.

The second thing I wanted to mention is something that always amazes me. With the vast amount of music/songs that have been recorded and produced over the years, people have a pretty good ability to recall song lyrics. Start up a song you haven't heard for years and soon you're crooning along with the right words. Somewhere in your brains there must be a separate section just for song lyrics...

How time flies

So I see it's been a month since my last post...so much for trying weekly. But I'm here now, so lets have ourselves a conversation (albeit it being onesided) about time. I know I've already talked about time in one of my earlier posts, but it seems to be an interesting thing to me. Due to that, I'll keep writing about it...

Time has to be one of the strangest concepts in history. It's measured out in defined incrimets (such as seconds, hours, days, years), yet at different times these incriments seem different. Let me try to explain. 1 minute has a defined time- 60 seconds. Every time you measure 1 minute it will be exactly the same amount of time (unless there's something wrong with your clock). That said, each time you measure 1 minute, it doesn't always feel the same. Sometimes 1 minute seems like a lifetime, whilst other times it flies by. I find that the feeling of time depends on the circumstances that you find yourself in. For instance, 1 minute will feel longer when you have to wait for the bus than it will when you are rushing to catch the bus. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?

The next layer on top of this gets even stranger. It's the feeling of those longer periods of time. Have you ever felt that the same amount of time feels like just yesterday and yet a lifetime ago at the same time? When I think about my time in the Netherlands, it's like that. When I think about the exact memories that I have and the experiences I had while I was there, it seems like I was there only yesterday. Yet when I think about all that has happened in the 6 years between when I was there and now, it feels like 2 lifetimes ago. Yet this period of time I'm talking about is the same. It's been 6 years since I was there and it feels like both a short and a long amount of time ago.

I think this is all extremely interesting and complex. Please let me know your thoughts...

 

Why I do what I do

Most of you will already know that I'm doing something called a 'Ministry Apprenticeship'. This is really 2 years of looking at ministry to see what it's like and to get some hands on experience. I'm doing my apprenticeship at a university, working mostly with Christian uni students aged anywhere between 17 and 50! I've done 1 year of these 2 years, meaning that I'm half way, and ready to reflect on why I love what I do so much.

Sometimes when you're working it's so easy to get bogged down in the 'doing' and to not really think about the motivations or reasons behind what you're doing (both short- and long-term). Last night I was reminded yet again about the benefits and joys of uni ministry. Some of the 'older' students where on a panel being asked questions by a crowd of enthusiastic students who were mostly new to the group. One of these questions was 'what's the best thing about the group'. I thought the responses where enlightening and very exciting! Behind the gist of the answers were two main ideas. The first was about the community of the group. Being in a group with fellow Christians is a great privilge and the unity that is felt from having such an important part of our lives (that is Christ) in common is amazing. The second idea was about the personal spiritual growth that has occured due to the teaching and training within the group. This last one is very special to me, because it's also the story of my involvement in the group when I was a student.

University is a time when young people are given freedom (especially if you've moved out of home to go to uni) and for many this is their first taste. It allows you to test your boundaries and work out who you are and make your own decisions about what to do with your life. All this freedom can sometimes get a bit much. That was the case with me. It was through the teaching within the group at uni that I was able to put some perspective back into my life and to grow in my knowledge and love of Jesus.

I love hearing about people who are on a journey of continued discovery and growth in Jesus. The best part of my job is being able to walk with them through that and to be a signpost pointing to Jesus and to God. Being able to open God's word with people and to discuss it, be challenged by it, and see it transforming people's lives is such a blessing. Are you experiencing this transformation in your life? Are you seeing God working in the lives of people around you? Be on the look out for these things and tell people about them, because that's one way of testifying to God and His powerful work in the world. And lastly, tell me (as I said, I love hearing about people's journeys of growth)!

Valentine's Day

So I started this blog over a week ago, and never got back to it...now's the time...


I'm sure there's millions of people out there posting on their blogs about today. Unfortunately I'm going to join them...

So in case you don't celebrate this one wherever you're from, today is Valentine's Day. A day when people celebrate love. It's been hijacked by couples trying to out-do each other in showing their love for each other with gifts, flowers, cards and romantic guestures. But is that really love? Spending some money to get the thing that your loved one really wants isn't love. Spending time with someone on a day that you've been told you have to spend with them isn't love. While these things, and many more that I haven't mentioned, may be nice, they aren't love. So what it love?

Dictionary.com (amazing source I know!) defines love in 4 ways:

1. a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.

2. a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend.

3. sexual passion or desire.

4. a person toward whom love is felt; beloved person; sweetheart.

None of these definitions really satisfies me. They're all about emotion and feelings. That's what most people think love is...a feeling. But love is so much more than that. Have you ever heard the saying you can still love someone even if you don't like them? Love isn't about how you're feeling at any particular time. It's about your motivation. If you really love someone, you'll sacrifice yourself for their good. You'll do things that benefit them at the expense of your own gratification and feelings.


With that lofty idea of love, is there anywhere that love can ever match up to it? There is one. God. Romans 5:8 says 'But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Sinners refers to our rebellion against God, our opposition of His rightful place as Lord in our lives. When we do this, we are pitting ourselves against God. I'm pretty sure God doesn't have emotional 'feelings' of love towards us at that time. Despite how God is 'feeling', He sent His own Son to die because of His LOVE for us. His motivation behind this sacrifice is love. God sacrificed His only Son, that He could show us His love for us. Is there any greater gesture of love in this world? 

Time vs Technology

Something I've been thinking about a lot lately is technology. We're so dependent on it, sometimes I wish it was different. We use it for pretty much everything, and that's getting more and more every year. We use it for work, education, entertainment, communication, time fillers etc. We run our lives using technology (in the western world). I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't like it. We created technology to help us save time, but in reality we spend more and more time using it, that time is taken rather than saved. I'm not saying that all technology is terrible and should be destroyed, it's just that sometimes I wish we could live without it.

Some of you may be thinking 'well, without technology you wouldn't even be writing this blog and airing your views like this', and that's true. But lately I find that I'm lost without technology and I fill my time with it. When I'm bored, or don't have anything to do for the day, all of that time is spend with technology. Watching TV (either on the TV or the computer), on the internet, on my phone. I try to imagine all the things I could get done if I spent less time with technology, but then when I turn off my computer I can't think of anything to do. It's like I have withdrawl from technology and without it I'm bored.

Filling our time with things is what we tend to do though. We fill our lives/time with technology, work, entertainment etc and we don't really focus on what's important in life. How much time do you spend with family and friends? and I mean quality time. How much time do you spend with God? I think this is the thing that annoys me so much about technology. It creates a barrier and a distraction in our relationships. Our relationships with each other and with God. It's much easier to watch a movie than it is to spend time talking and listening to God. I need to learn to take the time for God. To fill my life with Him, rather than with technology...who's with me?

Consolidation

Although this blog is brand new today, I've decided to cut down the amount of blogs I've started over the last 3 years and put them into one. This means all the old posts from the other blogs are now on here. This isn't as many posts as you would think. Over 3 years I've barely written more than 20 posts. So again I'm going to try and see if I can make this blog thing work.

My aim is to write weekly and my motivation is to become someone who reflects on things more than I already do. I'm what you would call a 'doer'. I do things. I plan, organise, spend time with people, read books, etc. I don't just sit and think. It bores me. I remember having a conversation with one of my previous housemates about what I think about. She has words that pop into her head and she thinks about them. I don't have anything. I'm not saying I'm an airhead and that I don't think, it's just that there never really seems to be things that 'pop' into my head. I usually think when I talk to people, so I usually talk a fair bit. I want to be someone who contemplates life, who thinks about what's going on around her, rather than just watches the world go by. Hopefully this blog will help me. If I make myself sit down and write something, anything, then maybe I'll learn to think about things more, and without needing to be talking to someone.

Hopefully i'll think about a whole range of things, and you're more than welcome to come along for the ride.

Waiting

Waiting....it's not fun. Yet there's so much to be waiting for. Your friend to meet you at the cafe for coffee, someone to pick you up and drive you to an event, money to transfer through the bank, love, pay day, a chance to travel and the birth of a child, just to give you a few examples. Sometimes it's hard to wait for these things, especially if they're the 'bigger' or more long-term things in life. We can get fixated on these things and wonder if they're ever going to happen. I wonder if by now some of the things I'm waiting for have happened to you.



Despite all of the things that we wait for, there is in life ultimately one thing worth waiting for that's much bigger and much more important than all these things put together. That's the return of Jesus Christ our Saviour and King. One day He will return to this earth. For those who trust in Him there will be joy and deliverance from the punishment we deserve, but for those who don't trust in Him, there will be sadness and the punishment we deserve. Although this is a foreign concept to many people, I hope that this is something that you still know. Whenever you are waiting for something to happen, remember this and fix your eyes on Him who is to come.