Have you ever read a book that all of a sudden seemed perfectly timed for you? That’s the way I felt about Casey Tygrett’s recently-released treasure, As I Recall: Discovering the Place of Memories in Our Spiritual Life. Even though I finished reading it a few weeks ago, the concepts and ideas keep coming back to my mind and heart as I continue to process my own memories along my walk with Christ.
I’m hoping that sharing a little about the book here might spur you on in your own spiritual journey with your memories and maybe even encourage you to go through the book for yourself. I highly recommend it!
Throughout the book, Tygrett relates our experiences with memories to that of picking up shells along the beach. This seemed especially fitting for me since I started reading it on my recent (but already seeming like too long ago) beach vacation. Gathering shells physically made the metaphor come alive to me even more as I began to collect them figuratively along with the reading, too. Tygrett prompts us to use our senses to take in the colors, textures, shapes, and sizes of the “shells” we gather in our imagination, thinking about what we recall, what stands out to us, and why.
Tygrett beautifully weaves together storytelling from Scripture and from his own life along with a bit of neuroscience while often coming back to the shell metaphor for our memories. He encourages us to take them out and hold them in the presence of God, reengaging them with the goal of spiritual transformation. Each chapter concludes with a practice to help guide us in this pursuit as well.
Honestly I still need to go back to finish some of the practices for myself, but the ones I did make time to complete along the way helped bring certain memories to my mind I might not have been thinking of otherwise. And truly that’s why I feel like the book was perfectly timed for me to read.
Our tendency often can lean toward avoiding bringing up the past, especially when it comes to difficult emotional recollections. But Tygrett asserts,
“When it comes to our painful memories, we long for amnesia, but we need redemption and reintegration.”
When our memories are redeemed, he expounds, “Moments we have considered worthless or even harmful are suddenly given value by the God who heals–the God who lives not in calendar time with its various demands but in kairos time, which is best described as nonchronological sacredness.”
Indeed there is a sacredness to how God works in our stories and weaves them into the bigger story of His love and faithfulness. What a treasure to remember.
As much as I connected to the writing and concepts of this book from the beginning, the last few chapters bring everything together in a way that keeps stirring my heart even more passionately. As Tygrett ties in the story of Jesus from the Last Supper to the cross and resurrection and then takes us to Revelation for a glimpse of the future that informs our present and past, the message of hope and encouragement shines through with fresh reminders of purpose for all our memories.
Every memory belongs.
Every memory can be redeemed.
Future memory gives us perspective for past memories and present contingency (living in the divine “maybe” of the in-between).
And all of it matters, not just for ourselves but also for those around us.
So often God will cause our paths to cross with others who need to hear our stories. Tygrett writes, “The resolution or the redemption of the bittersweet parts of our memories comes when we take that which is difficult and disparate in our scripts and engage it with Jesus to make that bittersweetness a beautiful gift. Then we may give a gift to other loved ones who feel abandoned, graceless, and deformed…”
“We possess our memories in order that, redeemed and re-envisioned, they may become stories that merit telling.”
I long for this to be true in my life. So I want to keep bringing my shells to Jesus and let Him do His work in me.
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| (Some creative people at the beach gathered these shells and provided markers for visitors to write on them.) |
For more about the redemption of our memories and sharing our stories in ways that are healing to others, check out the conversation Casey had recently with Austin Gohn on Tygrett’s otherWISE podcast. It’s worth listening all the way to the end as they discuss the intersection of themes between their two recent books. (Gohn’s book is titled, A Restless Age: How Saint Augustine Helps You Make Sense of Your Twenties, and although I might be twice that age, it still resonates with me… may be coming soon on my “to be read” list!)
I also loved Casey’s recent conversation with Kent Sanders on the Born to Create podcast, episode 084: Your Memories Make You Who You Are. He shares more about the role memories play in our identity and spiritual formation, helping to shape who we are. And Kent asks Casey to tell a bit about his creative journey and writing process, too, which I found very interesting as well.
I’d love for you to join in the conversation, too! What key memories, good or bad, have shaped your life? Have you seen glimpses of redemption in any of them? Is there someone you could encourage by sharing your story? Or does this stir up any special prayer requests? Feel free to leave a comment or send me a message on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.
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