Episode Transcript  

One

A Puzzle

Do you want to hear a brain-teaser? It comes from the Confession of St. Augustine. In book eleven of that classic work, St. Augustine asks himself how it’s possible for us to measure time. In other words, how can we know how much time something takes? Because time, after all, is just past and present and future. But you can’t measure what doesn’t exist, and the past doesn’t exist anymore, and the future doesn’t exist yet. So you can’t measure them.

And you can’t measure what doesn’t have any extension, but the present doesn’t have any extension. The instant of the present doesn’t have a later part or an earlier part, otherwise, the later part would be the future or the earlier part would be the past. Which means the present doesn’t have any length of time that you can measure.

It’s a real puzzle. If past and future don’t exist, and the present doesn’t have any length, how do you measure time? And Augustine’s answer is: you measure time through your memory. Through the impression that the past has left on your mind. For Augustine, that’s not just a philosophical answer to a pointless, sophistical pseudo-problem. It’s central to his understanding of his relationship with God.

Two

Appreciating a Song

Have you ever stopped and asked yourself what it means to appreciate a piece of music? Here’s what it doesn’t mean: it doesn’t mean just appreciating whatever note the singer happens to be singing at any given moment. It means entering into the flow of the song, feeling the way the present note is building on the notes that went before, the notes that no longer exist.

Think of your favorite song that really moves you. By the end of the song, you may be close to tears. But it’s not that last note that moved you all by itself. That last note wouldn’t have moved you if the singer had just started out by singing the last word of the song and left it at that. 

What’s the point? The point is that it’s your memory, your access to the things of the past, the things that no longer exist, that helps you to appreciate what is now right in front of you. 

So are you employing your memory in a way that gives you confidence and delight in what God is doing in the present right now?

Three

Remembering for the Sake of Trust

Augustine explores the nature of memory as he finishes the story of his life in the Confessions. That story, one of the most famous conversion stories of all time, was Augustine’s exercise in remembering so that He could admire and celebrate the goodness of God and what God does.

Memory is, therefore, critical if you’re trying to abandon yourself to God’s providence. A person who uses their memory in listening to a song doesn’t have to be constantly making a new decision to listen to every new note. they see the song as a single beautiful thing, made up of many notes. That’s what memory does: it ties everything together and binds it into a single unbroken thread that we can engage as a unity.

Without memory, every event is just a separate event with no relationship to the other events that came before it. And here’s the takeaway: if we don’t habitually recall everything God has already done for us, then every new challenge we face, every uncertainty, every potential threat, everything unfamiliar, each time we’ll have to keep going through the process of being anxious and scared and trying to trust over and over again.  

Whereas if we make a habit of reflecting on our past experience of God and the path He’s taken us down, the entire course of God’s providence will be one continuous flow, a single beautiful thing made up of united events, and we will trust the whole of it, present as well as past, and be at peace. 

Four

Things to Remember

So go back in prayer often to the past. Look continuously for all the precedents, everything you’ve been through in the past that’s like the situation you’re in now. Think of all the prayers that have been answered, all the scary situations that actually turned out for the best. all the times when it felt like every door in your life was closing, and then amazing and unforeseen opportunities suddenly showed up out of nowhere. Think of the vices you didn’t think you’d get over, but then you did. Think of how much worse you were in certain ways back then than your kids are now. Think of all the things you were afraid of losing, and now you don’t even miss them.

Remember the whole song, and incorporate the present note into that melody. And enjoy the whole of God’s composition.

Five

Don’t be an amnesiac when it comes to Divine Providence

When God called Moses to go toe-to-toe with the King of Egypt, and lead a Nation into a new land, He jogged Moses’ memory. He didn’t just say, “I am your God, Moses.” He said, “I am the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob.”

In other words, God was saying to Moses, “Remember that I came through for them, and I will come through for you.” So too with us. God wants us to remember that He’s come through for us in the past, and He will come through for us now. When God asks us to trust Him, He’s not asking us in a vacuum. He’s asking us after having shown repeatedly that He is trustworthy.

Let’s not be amnesiacs when it comes to God’s reliability. Let’s not act as though this is the first time we’ve ever had to count on God. Use your memory, unite the wonders of God into a continuous story of salvation and generosity. And trust in God’s providence.

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