40: To Remember By Heart

This probably isn’t surprising, but as a kid, I was a regular Sunday school attendee. To be honest, I don’t remember much other than some of the stories displayed on felt boards, graham cracker snacks, and sometimes leaving early for choir rehearsal. But that all changed when I reached fifth grade. Sunday school in fifth grade was almost like a rite of passage for the kids at my church. Because fifth grade Sunday school meant that our teacher was Mr. Bob. And Mr. Bob was a legend.

Each week, we would be given a voluntary homework assignment or as Mr. Bob called it, a challenge. The assignment was never anything too lengthy or in depth, but it always involved us interacting with the Bible in some way. Now, normally homework would not at all be something that would excite a fifth grader, but here’s the thing: if we completed the challenge and did it correctly, we would get a cash prize, or more specifically, cash in quarters.

Mr. Bob would literally show up to Sunday school each week with rolls and rolls of quarters. And if you came up to him before class with the information he asked about the week before, you would get your quarters. For instance, the first time I received a quarter, I answered the question, Who are the two people in the Bible who never died? Or another week, I remember a bonus challenge: Mr. Bob said he would give us a quarter for each of the 10 commandments that we could remember. So we could potentially walk away with 10 quarters! A whopping $2.50 might not seem like much, but for a fifth grader back in the 90s, it was a huge motivator.

Say what you will about Mr. Bob’s challenge strategy, but for fifth grade me, it made interacting with my Bible and being in Sunday school way more fun and exciting. It led me to explore Scripture in ways I probably wouldn’t have otherwise, especially at such a young age. It instilled a curiosity in me that I’ll always be grateful for, even if it doesn’t lead to a cash prize nowadays.

While that foundation has generally served me well over the years, it doesn’t mean I haven’t struggled or that I haven’t had plenty of room to continue to learn and grow. And today I want to share one recent, significant shift that has happened for me when it comes to my interaction with God through Scripture. And that is remembering Scripture.

Now, when I say, “remembering Scripture” there’s a pretty good chance you might think of memorizing Scripture. And that’s not necessarily wrong. But I’ve come to believe remembering Scripture is about so much more than just Scripture memory, and here’s why.

For the majority of my life, starting in Mr. Bob’s Sunday school class, I’ve approached memorizing Scripture the same way I would memorize anything else - a list of state capitols or presidents, lines in a script, or the phone numbers of my closest family and friends, just to name a few. There are tons of different strategies that work for different people; things like mnemonic devices, repetition, grouping, or putting the words or information to a familiar tune. However, no matter the strategy, the approach is more often than not, a cognitive one.

There is really nothing wrong with a cognitive approach. I mean, when you’re trying to memorize something, the right cognitive strategy works. But when it comes to remembering Scripture, not just memorizing it, a cognitive approach is sometimes limited and incomplete.

Remembering Scripture is much deeper than we might realize and essentially means that we learn a passage by heart, not just in our minds. I’ve discovered there is a difference. In learning a passage by heart, it infiltrates all of who we are and transforms us from the inside out. It doesn't just go in one ear and out the other, helping us earn a grade or prize or momentary bragging rights. Instead, it sticks, and dwells within us, enabling us to live our lives dedicated to the Kingdom of God and reflecting the character of Jesus. 

Up until several months ago, I wouldn’t have really considered that distinction. But for one of my classes last semester, we had to learn a passage of Scripture by heart. When I first read about it in the syllabus, I thought to myself, “Easy. I’ve done this plenty of times before. I’ll just pull out some of my old strategies for this kind of thing and get the grade.” But I had no idea what was in store. Here’s a little bit of what the experience looked like.

First, the passage was not assigned; we could choose any passage we wanted to, as long as it included around 10 verses. I was used to memorizing no more than five verses (except for that one time in middle school when I had to memorize the entire Christmas story from Luke 2 for my Bible class, but anyway). There was a lot of freedom in what we could choose, and we were encouraged to consider that the passage might actually choose us in a way. We just needed to pay attention.

Second, after the passage was selected, I then had to study it. I was asked to consider its context, read at least three commentaries about it, and explore things like its original audience and cross-references. This felt familiar, but more like what I would do to prepare for a Bible study, not just to simply memorize the words of a passage.

Once that groundwork was laid, over the next eight weeks, I was supposed to dive deep and interact with my passage in the many different ways outlined in the syllabus. Meditating on the passage and using it for lectio divina became a regular part of my routine, taking note of what stood out to me on different days and considering why that might be. I also created a sensory expression of the passage, which for me, looked like a collage of photographs I collected that captured the message of the passage. I know that sounds pretty simple and elementary, but it was definitely meaningful. For some of my classmates, that project looked like a painting, a song, a poem, and even a yoga routine inspired by their passages. I also set aside time for a mini-retreat filled with silence, reading and reflection, and reciting the passage as if I were preaching it.

I’d never intentionally spent that much time and energy on one particular, specific passage. But by the time I was supposed to present to my class at the end of the semester, I will tell you that I knew my passage, deeply, to my core. What I discovered was that I hadn’t only been interacting with the passage throughout the semester; I had been interacting with God through the passage and because of that, I remembered it. It wasn’t just about memorizing the words, but remembering the message.

On a Wednesday in December, our last night of the course, our class gathered together on Zoom so that we could share our passages with each other. I shared mine, but the gift was watching and listening to all my classmates share theirs. It was clear that their experience over the prior two months was just as powerful as mine, even though all of our passages were different. God was at work in each of us through the passages we held close and spent so much time with. It was a holy, powerful thing to be a part of.

In Colossians 3:16, Paul writes,

“Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.”

Bible study is important, hearing God’s Word faithfully proclaimed is important, discussing Scripture in community is important and all those things contribute to the richness of experiencing and interacting with God through Scripture. But what I’ve realized is that in order for us to truly experience the Word of Christ dwelling in us, we must dwell on it. And sometimes its easier to remember who God is and who God calls us to be when its ingrained in who we are. We’ll be less likely to forget when we are intentional about remembering.

When we remember Scripture, we become the kind of people Psalm 1:2-3 calls us to be:

“…but their delight is in the law of the Lord,

    and on his law they meditate day and night.

They are like trees

    planted by streams of water,

which yield their fruit in its season,

    and their leaves do not wither.”

Planted. Rooted. Sustained. Fruitful. People enabled to recall God’s presence and faithfulness in their lives even when circumstances might make it easy to forget. People enabled to be reminders of what the world so desperately needs. 

Today, may you consider what it might look like to remember Scripture. Not just to memorize the words, but to remember its message and reflect it in your little corner of the world. May we be intentional about letting the Word of Christ dwell in us richly, trusting the difference it might make right now and in the years to come.  

PS…if you’re interested in trying out some of the practices I mentioned in this episode or need some guidance on what this could look like for you, feel free to reach out! I’m not an expert, but I do feel equipped and would love to help and support you in whatever way I can.