Some lessons from remembering.

26Sep
by Jon Swanson

Some lessons from my process of learning a book of the Bible.

  1. By turning off the radio, I’m not listening to other people’s choices of what is important. For 40 minutes a day, I’m not at the mercy of a marketing strategy, a newsroom policy, or a fundraising program.
  2. By learning an extended section of text, I’m learning to pay attention.
  3. Because I’m not learning for competition (“First one to finish wins.” or a prize “everyone who memorizes this gets a pizza…or an iPod”), I can take the time to think through the text.
  4. Colossians was written to be read out loud to a group of people. By learning it out loud, I find myself looking for the inflection and eye contact and pausing and repetition of themes that I don’t notice when I am reading the text inside my head.
  5. And, thinking about the orality helps me remember the words. Because I’m not repeating lines, I’m talking to someone.
  6. By spending this much time on just a few paragraphs, I’m finding that they are becoming part of my thinking. In the same way that someone saying “call me” had many of us adding “maybe” this summer, I’m finding that phrases from Colossians keep coming to mind in conversations. In fact, a couple weeks ago when I was getting ready for a funeral, a section from early in the letter came to mind as the perfect text. Had I not been learning this, I never would have made that connection. And it was the perfect text.
  7. I’m learning that I can learn something. Compared to the whole Bible, or all the words ever written, it’s not much. Compared to what I knew four weeks ago, it’s a lot.

These are my notes. Your mileage may differ. But I thought it worth noting.

8 thoughts on “Some lessons from remembering.”

  1. Hans Schiefelbein's avatar

    hansschiefelbein

    This is all true and helpful. I got through the first “reading on the commute home from work yesterday and I’ll start reciting it this morning on the way in.

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  3. Rich Dixon's avatar

    Rich Dixon

    I like #6, the idea that what you intentionally think about shapes what you think about (duh!). Example: A steady diet of political talk radio leads me to run everything else through a political filter. 40 minutes per day of this letter gives a different background and context to other events.

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  4. Susan Pieters's avatar

    Susan Pieters

    Okay, I was running today and doing my usual daydreaming thing and then I remembered your memorization project… tomorrow I plan to try it out as I jog! And saying it out loud will help me not startle any bears on the path, as there are signs out to watch for them. I figure I’ll be doubly protected, somehow.
    Thanks again for your little, modest, important blog.

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    2. Susan Pieters's avatar

      Susan Pieters

      Hi Jon, my running is fairly out of sync with the words, I think, but I wanted to let you know that I had the same experience as you did with having the right verse ready at the right time! I visited an older friend with cancer, and I had been memorizing Romans 8:28-30. I said how I had always thought all things working for the good meant it would turn out right, but this morning I had added v. 29 and realized the goal of God working all things for the good was to transform us into the likeness of his son. That’s a very different goal. I think we both got it.

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