Remember What You Know

“Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth” (2 Peter 1:12 KJV).

How could anybody forget that the earth is round?

I had been reading a book about a woman who skied across Antarctica, so I traced her route on a map. I told my husband, “She skied north to the South Pole.”

“You can’t ski north to the South Pole,” he informed me.

“But she did ski north to the South Pole,” I insisted. As we lay in bed that night we discussed the issue for a few frustrating minutes, my ignorance much darker than the dimly lit room.

“Whatever you do, don’t become a navigator,” he said, grinning. “Everyone would get lost.” He was ready to drop the discussion, but I wanted to understand how I could be wrong. I mean, the map clearly showed that the woman had skied north.

“The earth is round like a basketball,” he finally pointed out. “So when you travel to the bottom of the ball, you can go only south.”

“Oh,” I said, burying my face in a pillow. I had known that, of course, and yet I apparently needed a reminder. I had been focusing on a flat map, forgetting that the earth is round.

I can so easily forget what I know; that is one reason I regularly read the Bible and listen to preaching. I long to learn new things, but I also want to have my memory refreshed. I must remember what I know.