So many areas of our groaning world need transforming these days. Unspeakable atrocities spew through the media.
Not to make light of all that, but I propose that sticky-notes could help.
I caught the sticky-note bug from the Post-it Queen. At least, that's what I came to call my co-worker during the weeks we worked together a few years back.
Gail used those small notepads with the adhesive strips in colours I've never seen before. When she needed to remember something, she scrawled it onto a sticky note and slapped it on her desk. She plastered the desk's entire top surface in a few weeks. It looked like a kaleidoscope - a welcome island of flourescent colour in our otherwise bland downstairs office.
I watched her for a week or so, then confessed that I had stacks of unused sticky notes at home. "Until this job, I've never found a use for them, except for the inside of cards. And gift tags." She found that funny. I know now why. Sticky notes deserve an award as an office assistant's most valuable helper. It's hard to forget something when it's staring you in the face every day.
I suspect Moses in the Bible would have appreciated sticky-notes too - even recommended their use, had they been invented sooner.
The book of Deuteronomy records the great leader's sermons, many given while he and the Israelites waited for God's permission to enter the Promised Land. He used that time to remind them of the most important faith lessons learned during their forty years of desert wandering. He pled with them never to set aside God's laws. He insisted that people tell the desert stories, teach the desert lessons and review the desert miracles, especially to the new generation - those born too late to understand the fledgling faith-trails of their people.
"Place these words on your hearts. Get them deep inside you. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder. Teach them to your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning until you fall into bed at night. Inscribe them on the doorposts and gates of your cities" Deuteronomy 11:18-21
Jesus may have advised the use of sticky notes when he gave his followers the two most important laws of all:
"The Lord your God is one; so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.' And here is the second: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.' There is no other commandment that ranks with these." Mark 12: 29-31The Message
Remembered and followed, those words of Christ transform lives, and transformed lives transform the world. But there's a hitch. Slapping that sticky note on church walls, desks, car dashes or social media won't change anyone or anything.
Those words must be stuck permanently, dead centre of our hearts.
