Me and names.

I got an email from a friend this afternoon, writing me about my post on forgetting the guy's name at the grocery store. For the benefit of this friend and all the billions of other readers (OK, dozens at best), let me offer a more detailed explanation of me and names.

I used to be bad at remembering names. This is rather funny, seeing how I used to work in newspapers. But it's true. Then I moved up here to Antelope, and one of my prayers was that God would help me remember more people' names. When I arrived, I knew a grand total of 4 people in this church, so I had to start from scratch. Remarkably, I found that I could remember students' names. A lot of names. Seriously, a lot.

To this day, I can still recall some of the students who were attending here when I first arrived (but don't come here anymore). I've had students who came once or twice a year because of visiting family members in town -- and I'll still remember their name the next year. Sometimes a kid will remind me of their first name, and I'll immediately recall their last name.

So, Sunday's grocery store incident -- not sure if it's a significant event or not. Lately, my mind hasn't been AS sharp at retaining names. Perhaps I'm reaching my capacity with names. Or maybe I haven't been doing enough work on my end to recall names. Who knows. I'm not worried ... yet.