Selective Memory

Recently Judy and I returned to Tulsa for the 50th Anniversary of Woodland Acres Baptist Church. We served there from April, 1983, to January, 1994. Those nearly 11 years were great times for us. The actual anniversary celebration will be this Sunday, November 7, but they decided to do a 4 week build up and invite former pastors, and members who are now serving as a pastor, to preach. The church scheduled a reception for Judy and me Saturday afternoon, 2:00 to 4:00. We flew into Tulsa at noon and was met by one of the deacons—now a middle aged deacon but a young deacon when we left. He took us to lunch and then we drove to the church. As we pulled up Judy and I asked each other, “Do you think anyone will come?” They did. About 70 folks came and we had a ball visiting with these precious people who were such an integral part of our lives for over a decade.
The most challenging part of the afternoon was remembering everyone’s name. (Those folks changed a lot in the last 17 years!) And we laughed through most of the afternoon, remembering the highlights of our time together. Sunday morning I preached and the congregation was responsive and attentive to my message. It was a wonderful weekend.
Here’s the part of the weekend that made it so wonderful—selective memory. They chose to forget the stupid things I did while serving as their pastor. Not a one of them brought up the things I’d like to forget. What gracious people.
Let me share one more significant item about our time at Woodland Acres last month. The pastor is David Rhodes. David’s family moved to Lubbock and joined Bacon Heights when he was a small boy. His mother served as a secretary here for a few years. And David was saved at BHBC and baptized by Hank Scott. Now he’s the Senior Pastor of the church I used to serve and I’m on staff at the church where he got saved. What a small world. For the record, he had nothing but good to say about Bacon Heights. Oh, how I love selective memory (when it works to my advantage, at least.)