Past

On the slope of a hill in Camp John Hay, you will find a rather unconventional attraction. Rather than tombs enclosing remains of dead humans, this cemetery is filled with cute tablets with inspiring inscriptions.

The Cemetery of Negativism was established by John Hightower in 1981. At that time he was the commanding general of Camp John Hay, about a 30-minute drive from Baguio City in the Philippines. The cemetery is a symbolic site for burying negativism—emotions, frustrations, attitudes, and thoughts that today we would call “bad vibes.”

At the entrance of the cemetery, a reminder reads, “Negativism is man’s greatest self-imposed infliction, his most limiting factor, his heaviest burden. No more, for here is buried the world’s negativism for all time. Those who rest here have died not in vain—but for you a stern reminder. As you leave this hill remember that the rest of your life. Be More Positive.”

Inscribed on one of the tombs is “Itz not possible. Conceived 11 Nov 1905. Still not Born.” Another tomb says “Why Dident I? Born???? Lived wondering why. Died for no reason.” There are dozens of different shapes and styles adorned with tiny sculptures of animals, flowers, and humans among others. The inscriptions are open to interpretations but the overall theme encourages visitors to open their minds, reflect, and leave the place in a better state than when they came in.

Camp John Hay is a popular tourist destination in Baguio City known for its tranquility, beautiful well-maintained park and gardens, luxurious mountain retreat, and shopping. The camp served as the summer refuge of the Americans from 1900 until 1991 when American bases were turned over to the Philippine government.

Possible Preaching Angle:

The weight of past mistakes can be a heavy burden to bear. Regret and negativity can consume us, leaving us feeling trapped in a cycle of self-blame and shame. However, the Bible offers a message of hope and redemption. Through faith in Jesus, we can experience a transformation of heart and mind. We are given the power to let go of the past and embrace a new life filled with hope and purpose. (Rom. 8:1; Psalm 103:12).

Saying farewell to yesterday might be a challenge for some, but not for the numerous New Yorkers who bid a traditional farewell to 2023 in Times Square ahead of the big New Year's Eve celebration. At the 17th annual Good Riddance Day Thursday, bad memories were burned – literally.

Good Riddance Day is inspired by a Latin American tradition in which New Year’s revelers stuffed dolls with objects representing bad memories before setting them on fire.

In Times Square, attendees wrote down their bad memories on pieces of paper. "COVID," "Cancer," “Our broken healthcare system,” “Spam calls and emails,” “Bad coffee,” and “Single Use Plastics,” were some of the entries.

Every December 28, this event gives people the opportunity to write down everything they want to leave in the past and destroy any unpleasant, unhappy, and unwanted memories – so that they can toss them into an incinerator and watch them vanish.

Possible Preaching Angle:

What painful experience, memory, or consequence caused by sin would you like to leave behind in the New Year? This is a reality for the believer “Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!” (Lam 3:22-23). With Paul we can say “Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead” (Phil. 3:13).

Here’s how Tim Keller used to explain our sin problem:

Imagine your present self looking at your past self, say 10 years ago. Your present self thinks your past self was a fool. Your present self looks back and says, “Back then, I needed guidance I didn't understand. I was so naive. I was so silly. I was immature. I behaved badly.” So, your present self always thinks of your past self as a jerk. Well, the problem is that your future self will think of your present self as a jerk 10 years from now. You'll look back now and say, “Back then, I thought I needed guidance. I thought I understood, but I was such a fool.”

Here's the blunt bad news about our condition: You're always a jerk, but you always think you're just getting over it. We always think that we've just arrived. It's what you thought when you were 15. Then, then you looked back at your 12-year-old self and said, “Now I've arrived. Boy, what a dummy I was when I was 12. I'm ready for the world now.” By the time you're 20, you say that 15-year-old self was so ignorant and flawed and sinful. But you see here’s the point: you’re always ignorant and flawed and sinful, but you continually think you're just getting over it. Sin is deeper in us than we ever imagined.

The actor Paul Newman was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won for The Color of Money in 1987. He also received an honorary Oscar in 1986 and the Academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1994.

But his life was hardly free of disappointment and tragedy. He wrestled with his drinking, a habit he knew was self-destructive but says “unlocked a lot of things I couldn’t have done without it.” And he was shattered when his son, Scott, who had led a drifting life in his father’s shadow and was receiving psychiatric treatment, died in 1978 at the age of 28.

Decades into his singularly successful career as an actor, Paul Newman offered a frank admission. “I am faced with the appalling fact that I don’t know anything,” he said.

Newman was also dogged by self-doubt, perpetually questioning his choices and plagued by past mistakes. “I’m always anxious about admitting to failure,” he said. “To not being good enough, to not being right.” Newman’s lifelong insecurity is one of the more striking themes to emerge from a posthumous memoir by the actor, titled The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man.

As we age, many of us become distressed about our inability to recall names, words, or ideas as quickly as maybe we used to. But according to a new study, perhaps there is good reason for us not to be so upset.

Drs. Ryan and Frankland summarize, in an article on SciTechDaily.com, “Changes in our ability to access specific memories are based on environmental feedback and predictability. Rather than being a bug, forgetting may be a functional feature of the brain, allowing it to interact dynamically with the environment.”

Even so, what we think of as “forgetting” is not a permanent state of being.

Memories are stored in ensembles of neurons called ‘engram cells’ … and forgetting occurs when engram cells cannot be reactivated. The memories themselves are still there, but … it’s as if the memories are stored in a safe but you can’t remember the code to unlock it.

In other words, as a way of adapting to new circumstances, our brains automatically learn to prioritize certain memories and allow others go into cold storage. This cognitive adaptation, though occasionally embarrassing, has an upside.

In a changing world, forgetting some memories can be beneficial as this can lead to more flexible behavior and better decision-making. If memories were gained in circumstances that are not wholly relevant to the current environment, forgetting them can be a positive change that improves our wellbeing.

Possible Preaching Angle:

God wants us to be free from the crippling bondage of our former mistakes. Even a God whose memory is eternal and infallible, promises “I will remember their sins no more” (Heb. 8:12).

In March, 1941, a nurse on Bataan received a package mailed before the world-changing surprise attack on Hawaii on December 7, 1941. Opening it, with other nurses looking on, she removed a sheet of tissue paper and lifted a "little, frivolous black hat, with a dainty veil."

All broke into a laughter perilously close to tears. The nurse, in her army coveralls and bigger-than-her-feet shoes, held it in her hands, noting its cuteness. They watched silently as she set it on her head and carefully adjusted it—then broke again in laughter mixed with tears.

The hat symbolized what they all had lost, and many of them wouldn't again find, war being the all-devouring monster of humanity: cars on paved streets; dinners in restaurants with choices on the menu, theaters showing films, and ball games.

The little hat became a popular tourist attraction to other nurses from other bases. Everyone looked, most wistfully, many with tears brimming or falling, as memories surged and emotions spilled.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Sometimes little things remind us of people in other times, in other places, now lost and gone. Of relationships treasured and possessions valued now gone. But when we sacrifice all things for God, he will reward us with greater things that can never be taken away (Matt. 19:27-29).

In both 1929 and 2008, economic experts everywhere claimed to know exactly what they were doing, yet not a single person could fix the series of mistakes that crashed the world’s economy.

After these financial crises, many were rightfully furious--at the fraudulent bankers, who systematically destroyed the world economy for their own gain; at the Wall Street brokers who received bailouts and little to no jail time, while millions lost everything.

To avoid future financial catastrophes, a library in Edinburgh, Scotland has compiled a collection of sensible economic literature that aims to educate the next generation of economists. The Library of Mistakes contains over 2,000 books, all relating to economics and finance. Book titles sizzle with the message of it all; Crash of the Titans, The Crunch, Debt Shock, Too Big to Fail, and The Manipulators.

The Library of Mistakes was inspired by the 2008 Great Recession, which served as a perfect example of how, according to the library’s curators, “smart people keep doing stupid things.” The library’s curators argue that the only way to build a strong economy is to learn from our mistakes.

Ultimately, the Library of Mistakes encourages self-reflection and the serious study of history. In the wise words of George Santayana, “… for those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” And given the turbulent state of the world today, such advice could not be more timely.

Possible Preaching Angle:

God has written the historical sections of the Bible for this very reason--so that we would learn not to repeat the mistakes of others. The clear message is “don’t let this happen to you.” “Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come” 1 Cor. 10:11).

Willie Carson, the famous British jockey, was racing one day at Pontefract. He was happily leading on the rails. A furlong and a half from home he thought he heard something at his back and, glancing round, he saw the shadow of a horse coming up behind. Determined that he should not be beaten, he spurred on and was first at the finish line. He looked round again and saw that the nearest horse was fifteen lengths behind--he had been racing his own shadow for the last part of the race.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Sometimes we are haunted by the memory of a mistake, a regret from our past. It is as if there is a shadow looming over us, preventing us from going forward. God has forgiven our past and calls us to move forward into his future (Phillipians 3:13).

All over the world, from the US to Germany to the UK, some people decide to disappear from their own lives without a trace--leaving their homes, jobs, and families in the middle of the night to start a second life, often without ever looking back.

In Japan, these people are sometimes referred to as jouhatsu. That’s the Japanese word for “evaporation,” but it also refers to people who vanish on purpose into thin air, and continue to conceal their whereabouts--potentially for years, even decades.

42-year-old Sugimoto said, “I got fed up with human relationships. I took a small suitcase and disappeared. I just kind of escaped.” From inescapable debt to loveless marriages, the motivations that push jouhatsu to “evaporate” can vary. Regardless of their reasons, they turn to companies that help them through the process. These operations are called “night moving” services, a nod to the secretive nature of becoming a jouhatsu. They help people who want to disappear discreetly remove themselves from their lives, and can provide lodging for them in secret whereabouts.

Sho Hatori, who founded a night-moving company, says “Normally, the reason for moving is something positive, like entering university, getting a new job or a marriage. But there’s also (other reasons), like dropping out of university, losing a job, or escaping from a stalker … What we did was support people to start a second life.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Adversity; Hardship; Escape - Life has trials, challenges, hurts and wounds that make us want to run away and escape. While people may not literally vanish, we do have other ways of isolating, hiding, or escaping from our pain and challenges.

Sir Everton Weekes, the legendary West Indian cricketer, stands out as one of the finest sportsmen to come out of the Caribbean. During a glittering career, Everton Weekes played in 48 Internationals and scored 4,455 runs as a batsman, at an average of 58.61. His average places him at number 10 on the all-time International Test averages in cricket history.

One strange statistic of his prolific skill, however, is that Sir Everton Weekes scored only one hit for “six” runs in his entire career. (A “six” is when a batsman hits the ball to clear the boundary rope without it bouncing inside the playing area).

When asked once about this strange statistic, Everton Weekes hinted that it was probably reflective of the time when as a child, he would play street cricket in the neighborhood with friends. He said, “If you hit the ball in the air and broke someone's window, you weren't getting that ball back, so we had to keep it on the ground.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Although in Sir Everton Weekes' case it never had a negative effect on career, sadly, many people allow past memories to hold them back from bringing out the best in them. If you are one of them, may Paul’s words encourage you. He said, “... But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13-14).

The Dutch Defense Safety Inspection Agency launched an investigation about an F-16 fighter that suffered damage from 20-millimeter cannon fire during a routine training exercise. The problem? The damage came from its own cannons.

The aircraft is equipped with a Vulcan Gatling gun, which can fire over 6,000 rounds a minute. Those rounds travel at a muzzle velocity of 3,450 feet per second. But the aircraft is capable of flying much faster. So what appears to have happened is that, after a burst of rounds were fired from the aircraft, the pilot accelerated and collided with those rounds while still in mid-air. At least one of them struck the side of the F-16’s fuselage, and parts of a round were ingested by the aircraft’s engine. The F-16’s pilot managed to land the aircraft safely at Leeuwarden Air Base.

Potential Preaching Angles: God’s Word promises that we will reap what we sow. Be careful and just in your actions, lest the consequences become your own downfall.

A nearly 40-year-old Doritos bag washed ashore on to an Outer Banks beach in North Carolina. The bag that is believed to have been floating in the ocean for nearly 40 years, the National Park Service reported in a Facebook post.

“This bag was found last week ... on Harkers Island along with other storm debris,” read the post. “The bag design looked odd to us, but we couldn’t put our finger on why until we noticed the date in the lower corner—1979!”

The rangers noted in their post that the bag has been floating in the ocean for nearly 40 years, which highlights just how long plastics can remain in the environment. “This serves as a reminder that plastic trash lasts a long time, in this case almost 40 years!” the National Park Service said.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Although we might feel that what we have done in the past is past, the debris of sin is still present. We need to confess our sins to God and be fully cleansed of all unrighteousness.

Pasquale di Filippo was horrified recently by the violence his daughter was exposed to on television—violence he was partially responsible for.

The Rai TV network had recently aired an episode of their Sicilian mob drama Il Cacciatore (The Hunter), in which a character depicted his past as a mafioso. As part of a deal Filippo made with police to become an informant, Pasquale had previously admitted to four different murders, and had previously served 10 years behind bars. Since becoming a police informant, Pasquale had since entered the witness protection program, and had built a family with a different identity.

Understandably, all of that was news to his 14-year-old daughter, who hadn’t been around during that tumultuous time. According to his interview with local news service La Republica, Pasquale’s daughter shouted him, “Dad, what have you done?!” She has since retreated to her room, leaving only to go to school.

Subsequently, Pasquale sued the network, claiming defamation. He is seeking a million euros (about $1.1 million) in damages.

Potential Preaching Angles: Ultimately, darkness will not shield us against the truth. In God’s kingdom, the truth always finds its way into the light. It’s better to be honest with our children about our mistakes than to hide them and hope our kids don’t find out. Often, kids are too smart for that strategy to work.

In a New York Times article, columnist David Brooks argues, "Religion my be in retreat, but guilt seems as powerfully present as ever." To make his point, Brooks quotes from a brilliant essay by Wlfred McClay called "The Strange Persistence of Guilt." Brooks writes:

Technology gives us power and power entails responsibility, and responsibility, McClay notes, leads to guilt: You and I see a picture of a starving child in Sudan and we know inwardly that we're not doing enough. "Whatever donation I make to a charitable organization, it can never be as much as I could have given. I can never diminish my carbon footprint enough, or give to the poor enough. … Colonialism, slavery, structural poverty, water pollution, deforestation—there's an endless list of items for which you and I can take the rap."

We're still shaped by religious categories and the need to feel morally justified, and yet here's the problem that Brooks identifies (and that the gospel addresses):

And yet we have no clear framework or set of rituals to guide us in our quest for goodness. Worse, people have a sense of guilt and sin, but no longer a sense that they live in a loving universe marked by divine mercy, grace and forgiveness. There is sin but no formula for redemption.

Since 2006 a group of people celebrate an important event around the New Year. It's called Good Riddance Day. Participants write down unpleasant, painful, or embarrassing memories from the past year and throw them into an industrial-strength shredder. Or if you prefer, you can also take a sledge hammer and smash your good riddance item, like a cell phone, for instance. The U.S. event is based after a Latin American tradition in which New Year's revelers stuffed dolls with objects representing bad memories before setting them on fire.

One of the Good Riddance Day organizers said, "It really is this need we have, even when the world is crazy, to say, 'You know what? I'm gonna let go of the things that have been dragging me down and going to look forward with a sense of hope and the possibility of change. Either for myself personally or the world.' So this is a chance to detox in a big way."

While the Bible depicts forgetting mostly in dire terms related to apostasy, it also presents some instances when it is a blessing. There are some things we should forget. We do not want to be like the fifty-five individuals in the U.S. who have been diagnosed with hyperthymesia, also known as Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory, HSAM. These people spend an excessive amount of time thinking about their pasts and display extraordinary ability to recall specific events.

Alexandre Wolfe is one of the fifty-five. In an interview for National Public Radio, she described how she remembers every detail of a mundane activity like driving to Target for groceries which occurred more than ten years ago. She remembers what she wore and ate every day for the past decade. She remembers if the fan in the bedroom was running on this date last year. Sometimes this extraordinary ability is an advantage, but at other times—many other times—it is a curse.

One interviewee in the NPR report says that he remembers all the wrongs done against him and all the wrongs he has committed, and that very scenario is the basis of an episode from the television show House. A middle aged character with hyperthymesia remembers everything she said and did since the onset of puberty. She also remembers the wrongs people have done to her and those memories haunt and harass her. The episode demonstrates, as the NPR story states, that "we need to forget as much as we need to remember."

When we have forgotten the past, the community helps us re-learn our own story. The case of "Benjamin Kyle" is instructive. In the early morning of August 31, 2004, employees of a Burger King in Richmond Hill, GA found a man unconscious next to a dumpster. He was naked, sunburnt, and had bites from red ants. His skull had three depressions, apparently from blunt force trauma. He also had amnesia and was unable to remember his own name, much less how he came to be found beaten behind a Burger King. The employees called 911, and he was taken to a hospital in Savannah; but without identity papers or memory, they listed him only as "Burger King Doe."

For more than ten years he was unable to remember his name and thus was unable to get a Social Security card. He could not obtain a job nor collect any kind of benefits from the government. He named himself "Benjamin Kyle," sensing that his first name might have been Benjamin, and he sought a community that knew him previously to help him piece together his identity. You see, without a community, this man had no access to his story.

Finally, with the help of investigative reporters and genetic testing, "Benjamin Kyle" learned his real name and likely family of origin. As he started to identify with his community again he said, "Looking at all these names, all these people, kind of gives me a sense of belonging," he said. "I have a history. I'm not just some stranger that materialized out of thin air."

A scan through the statements of President Abraham Lincoln reveals a man who underwent some very dark days. Consider, at the start of the War Between the States, Lincoln was resolute and visionary. "The mystic chords of memory," he announced in his inaugural address on March 4, 1861, "stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union." A little over a year into the war, on June 28, 1862, his rhetoric was tempered but still firm and uncompromising: "I expect to maintain this contest until successful, or till I die, or am conquered."

And then the true darkness began to fall. After a devastating defeat at Manassas in Virginia, Lincoln began first to worry, and then to doubt his cause: "Well, we are whipped again, I am afraid," he moaned. "What shall we do? The bottom is out of the tub, the bottom is out of the tub!" (August 1862). The next months and years for Lincoln were lived in near-constant, faith-shaking darkness and despair: "If there is a worse place than Hell, I am in it" (December1862, after defeat at Fredericksburg). "My God! My God! What will the country say?" (May 1863, after defeat at Chancellorsville). "This war is eating my life out. I have a strong impression that I shall not live to see the end" (1864).

And then, in the darkness a flicker of hope burst into flame. Union victories began turning the tide of the Civil War, and we can see Lincoln's spirits lift. Once again his rhetoric begins to soar, to reach resolutely toward his vision of one United States of America. In March 1865, about a month before Lee's surrender, Lincoln is able to regather his faith and speak, "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right [as God gives], let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds … " (Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865). And finally, less than two weeks before his death, President Lincoln proclaimed the end of his trials: "Thank God I have lived to see this. It seems to me that I have been dreaming a horrid dream for four years, and now the nightmare is gone" (April 3, 1865).