I'm sorry, what were we talking about?

"lest we forget"

Deuteronomy 4:23

I read something interesting last week; sort of a glimpse into how the human mind works.  And when I heard it, I thought things like, "ohh.... so that's why I do that...." and "I'm glad it's not just me!"

So here's a little psychology for ya.  It's called the "doorway effect" and it's why, when you enter a room, you forget why you came in there.  It's not just that you need more memory enhancement vitamins, or that you've signed up for one committee too many at work.  Although maybe you have...

It's simply that walking through a doorway causes forgetting.  That's the conclusion of the scientists in a study at Notre Dame.  They ran tests, both in real life, and in the form of video games, and participants consistently forgot the task they'd been told to do, if they had to go into another room.

And get this:  it didn't matter how far you had to walk.  Participants walked the same distance, either within a room, or into a different room, and memory was worse when going through a doorway.  And in some cases, participants walked through a door, then walked through a second door that brought them back to the same room.  Didn't help.

The doorway is the problem, people!  Isn't that a relief??

It has helped me a little, to know that.  I make an effort now, as I walk leave my bedroom, to remind myself that the laundry room is where I'm headed.  For instance.  The hardest thing for me, really, is when I get home from someplace.  I get out of the car thinking of something I need to do.  Then I enter the house, and just start doing other things.  I completely forget about that thing I was planning on doing.  But now I know what the "forgetting trigger" is, and I do something to remind myself. 

And then last Sunday, my pastor made some comment about how every time the Israelites got a new king, their behavior changed.  Sometimes for the good; more often for the bad.  And generally it was largely the king's fault ~ good kings led the people to obedience; bad kings led the people to idolatry.  But maybe the changes were ~ like doorways ~ a time when the people forgot where they were headed. 

Remember what it was like when you were in school, and there was a substitute teacher?  Or when your parents left you with a babysitter?  Testing the rules.  Checking the boundaries.   And if the sitter said it was okay to have soda with dinner, then you abandoned what had been the rule before.  Obedience to the rules that had already been established, became obedience to the new allowances.

So.  Take a look at your life.  Are changes in your life an invitation to stray?  Are "entrances" or "exits" the opportunity to forget what your goal was?  What the rules are? 

Change can be risky.  Don't let your guard down.  New chapters in your life... new home, new school, new church, new workplace.... No matter what changes in your life, God remains the same.  

~ "Take heed to yourselves,

lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God

which He made with you" ~

Deuteronomy 4:23