I have an argument with myself every Sunday…go to By Heart or not? I list the pros and cons. The cons come thronging, crowding in: I haven’t practiced much, so haven’t progressed; I am bored or discouraged with what I’m learning; I will never know as many verses as Marla; I am in the middle of a project I don’t want to put down for that hour or so; I’ve already been to church once today, isn’t that enough?; my friend whom I haven’t seen all week called and she wants to have coffee and catch up; Sunday afternoon is the best time for a nap…and on and on.
Somehow, the pros are never as compelling – fellowship, the satisfaction of training my mind, enjoyment of a slowly growing storehouse of verses committed to memory. Usually – albeit grudgingly – I decide to go anyway. Did you catch that? Not the ‘I go’ part, but the ‘anyway’ part? The ‘in spite of reasons, not because of them’ part? I wonder, what is the struggle here, and why is that struggle perpetual?
Every time I work on remembering a section of Scripture, I recognize anew the power of God’s word. I was a theater major, and have memorized pieces by a wide range of authors – Shakespeare, Brecht, Stoppard, Coward, Moliere – but while their words are beautiful, witty, incisive, or forceful, they pale beside Scripture, which has an authority beyond any other written word.
When I start to hide God’s word in my heart, each attempt to learn a verse opens a door to deeper understanding, and the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Opportunities arise, unlocked by focusing on what God is saying. The richness of Scripture provides dimension and texture to the ceaseless yammering of my environment – that constant flood of homogenized, morally flattened, context-deprived, and insipid messages that washes up against my consciousness every waking moment.