James Bryan Smith says that during one of his tours, Rich Mullins would spend the time before each concert with markers and a white board. He’d draw a map of the world and fill in as many countries as he could before the concert. When he was called to go to the stage, he’d write “The world as best as I can remember” and sign it and go sing.

Last week I printed a list of the names of the books of the Bible and had a group of guys I meet with each week write brief summaries of as many of the books as they could in the hour that we have. They did great.

I keep forgetting people’s names unless I review them. People I know well, I forget.

In our commitment to novelty, our scanning of volumes of information and data, our constant stream of life (which include these words in an irony I appreciate fully), I am thinking that I have to have an equal commitment to reviewing.

Moses gave one last great sermon, transcribed as the Bible book of  Deuteronomy. It’s his last lecture, his review. And in his review, he reminded the people of Israel to review daily what mattered. He told them,

 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Apparently, it seemed to make sense to Moses that reviewing what was at your core mattered. And to Jesus.