The ability of the human brain to store, retain, and recall enormous amounts of information is miraculously impressive. Unfortunately, sometimes information gets permanently stored that we would love to “dump.”

[This would be a great moment for an interactive: Ask your congregation if they have any songs or phrases or quotes that keep ringing in their ears despite all attempts to banish them. What tapes keep playing in their minds that they wish they could mute?]

High on that list for me are all the annoying, cloying, intentionally addictive songs you learned as a kid, or endured as a parent.

Here is one of the mysteries of the universe: Why do we forget how to do algebra, or where the extra lawn mower blade is stored, or the day of a dental appointment, but we can always recall with perfec…