As I shared in the last issue, the call to holiness is a call to union with Jesus. This is the first goal of the Christian life. The problem that arises, however, is that past memories often get in the way of a person achieving such union with Christ. I shared that what must happen is the healing of memories.

Why is healing of memories so very important? Because our past makes up as much of us as our present does. So we must bring Christ not only into our present life but also into our past life – memories – so that He can heal any memories which cause us pain in the present or which govern our attitudes and/or behaviors in the present.

Psychodynamic therapy, by the way, attempts to help a person bring past experiences, which are now memories, into a person’s present consciousness and there heal those memories through a deeper and better understanding of those memories. Once past memories are present, we can then choose not to let them control our present lives.

Paul understood why we need Christ in our past. He said “you must put aside your old self”. Your mind must be renewed by a spiritual revolution so that you can put on the new self that has been created in God’s way, in the goodness and holiness of the truth. We must remember that our past experiences are controlled, perhaps, not by thoughts that are influenced by the Gospel of Christ but by a gospel of our society. The values, attitudes and the events of our society are as much a part of our unconscious memories as anything else and are influential on our behavior. The process of engaging in spiritual growth is to put on the attitudes and behaviors of Christ. More frequent than not this process requires that we “give up” society’s attitudes and behaviors that are also very much a part of our unconscious. Up to the point in our lives at which we begin to take Jesus seriously, our minds are filled with society’s values.