I received the following little vignette in the mail the other day and it gave me a good laugh. According to the story, three sisters, ages 92, 94, and 96, lived in a house together in up-state New York. One night the ninety-six year old drew a bath. She put her foot in and then paused to think. She yelled downstairs to her sisters, “Was I getting in or out of the bath tub?”  The ninety-four year old yelled back, “I don’t know, I’ll come up and see.” She started up the stairs and paused a bit to think. “Was I going up the stairs or down?” she yelled to her sister. Now the ninety-two year old was sitting at the kitchen table having some tea, listening to her sisters yelling.  She shook her head and said, “I sure hope I never get that forgetful!” With that she knocked on wood for good measure. She then yelled to her sisters, “I’m on my way up there, but first I have to stop and see who’s knocking on the door!”

Don’t you love that story?  I do. I like the story because it can remind us all of how easily we can be so forgetful that we end up in a world of hurt and stress.

As I was thinking about this little story, I began to consider how many people I know who find themselves in the middle of some very complicated situations. I know of one case in which a man found himself in the middle of some very difficult circumstances so he came to talk about all of the stress he was under. He talked for an hour without pausing, then, after taking a deep breath said, “I am in so deeply that I can’t remember why I ever got into this mess! Can you remember why I decided to do all of this in the first place?”

This reminds me of a conversation I had with a parent who was complaining about how many activities she had to drive her daughter to each day. “I can’t recall why I ever agreed to all of this,” she said.  She went on, “It’s like somewhere or other I said yes and from then on my life is not my own. I can’t remember when I said yes. I guess I did, but I don’t really recall it. My daughter insists that I agreed to all of this. I just can’t remember.”

The Season of Lent is a great time for us to take a good look at our lives by doing a kind of memory check. From time to time, it is good for us to ask ourselves why we are doing what we are presently doing.  It’s a great opportunity for us to see if how we are living matches up with what we had originally intended for ourselves, our families and for others.

Perhaps if we recall what decisions we have made that have brought us to the way we are presently living, and why we had originally made those decisions, we may find that a new decision is in order. Could you use a good memory check?