Memory
This past weekend I spent coaching my church's Bible quizzing team at the final tournament of the year.
Bible quizzing is a game show-like tournament for youth based on word-for-word knowledge of Bible verses from a particular passage. (Here is an example of a quiz from another district; they are quizzing on Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. The first quiz starts at 15:28. Our district doesn't have the software with the cheesy sound effects...!)
I competed in Bible quizzing when I was in high school for four years, and have coached for another seven now. I first started because my friends were doing it, but it soon became much more important to me. I wasn't all that good at it (I was decent; I just could never manage to memorize the volume needed to really do well), but the verses I did memorize managed to sink deep and change who I was.
The first time I used a quizzing verse in everyday life was in grade nine. We were doing a rock climbing unit in gym class, and I was climbing this very shaky scaffolding. I was harnessed, but it still freaked me out. To keep calm, I started quoting to myself a verse I found comforting: I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world (John 16:33). Jesus obviously wasn't talking about shaky scaffoldings, but it still worked somehow. But I really got the importance of memorizing verses at summer camp, when I was leading Bible studies. Not only did I know the answers to the questions people were asking, but I could back them up with Bible verses--off the top of my head.
Obviously, you don't need to be on a Bible quizzing team to memorize Scripture, but memorizing is hard work, and quizzing provides accountability, competition, and built-in deadlines that can make a big difference in staying motivated. So when school got busier and I got a job in grade eleven, I decided to keep on doing quizzing anyhow.
Memorizing verses is so much better than just reading them. When you memorize, the verse can go round and round in your mind like an earwormy pop song or a commercial jingle. I may have memorized the verses by rote, but I spent a lot of time thinking about them--especially in the shower.
These commands that I give you today are to be on your hearts and on your minds. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Bind them on your foreheads. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road. (Deuteronomy 6: 5-8ish)
Some of the verses I didn't understand when I first memorized them, but after weeks, even months, of them running through my mind, I got them. Others, I still don't understand years later. For example, I still don't get this one: The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit (John 3:8).
Sometimes when I am praying or working through something, a verse will just pop into my mind, as if God is answering my questions.
For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing joints and marrrow, soul and spirit, it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Hebrews 4:12).
Memorizing passages systematically, instead of just picking out the famous verses that are nice to hear, has caused me to come across many verses that I otherwise would not have found. For example, one that I find very intriguing is this: And I am confident in the Lord that I myself will come soon (Philippians 2: 18ish). At first glance, this is just a humdrum line in a letter about a guy planning a visit to the recipients of the letter. But we know that Paul, the author of the letter, wrote it while in prison. (It, in fact, says so elsewhere in the letter.) We also know that Paul never got out of prison, but died there. Which means that Paul, the author of a good chunk of the New Testament and an important leader of the Church, was wrong about God's will. I find that rather encouraging--when I mess up, I am in good company!
But I think the most important consequence of quizzing is how it changed me and my worldview. Those verses I memorized sunk in and changed how I move through the world. Verses like these:
Note: All the verses in this post I typed out from memory (and all but one I memorized for quizzing). I thought it was appropriate for this topic. I am pretty sure there are some mistakes, though.
Bible quizzing is a game show-like tournament for youth based on word-for-word knowledge of Bible verses from a particular passage. (Here is an example of a quiz from another district; they are quizzing on Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. The first quiz starts at 15:28. Our district doesn't have the software with the cheesy sound effects...!)
I competed in Bible quizzing when I was in high school for four years, and have coached for another seven now. I first started because my friends were doing it, but it soon became much more important to me. I wasn't all that good at it (I was decent; I just could never manage to memorize the volume needed to really do well), but the verses I did memorize managed to sink deep and change who I was.
The first time I used a quizzing verse in everyday life was in grade nine. We were doing a rock climbing unit in gym class, and I was climbing this very shaky scaffolding. I was harnessed, but it still freaked me out. To keep calm, I started quoting to myself a verse I found comforting: I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world (John 16:33). Jesus obviously wasn't talking about shaky scaffoldings, but it still worked somehow. But I really got the importance of memorizing verses at summer camp, when I was leading Bible studies. Not only did I know the answers to the questions people were asking, but I could back them up with Bible verses--off the top of my head.
Obviously, you don't need to be on a Bible quizzing team to memorize Scripture, but memorizing is hard work, and quizzing provides accountability, competition, and built-in deadlines that can make a big difference in staying motivated. So when school got busier and I got a job in grade eleven, I decided to keep on doing quizzing anyhow.
Memorizing verses is so much better than just reading them. When you memorize, the verse can go round and round in your mind like an earwormy pop song or a commercial jingle. I may have memorized the verses by rote, but I spent a lot of time thinking about them--especially in the shower.
These commands that I give you today are to be on your hearts and on your minds. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Bind them on your foreheads. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road. (Deuteronomy 6: 5-8ish)
Some of the verses I didn't understand when I first memorized them, but after weeks, even months, of them running through my mind, I got them. Others, I still don't understand years later. For example, I still don't get this one: The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit (John 3:8).
Sometimes when I am praying or working through something, a verse will just pop into my mind, as if God is answering my questions.
For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing joints and marrrow, soul and spirit, it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Hebrews 4:12).
Memorizing passages systematically, instead of just picking out the famous verses that are nice to hear, has caused me to come across many verses that I otherwise would not have found. For example, one that I find very intriguing is this: And I am confident in the Lord that I myself will come soon (Philippians 2: 18ish). At first glance, this is just a humdrum line in a letter about a guy planning a visit to the recipients of the letter. But we know that Paul, the author of the letter, wrote it while in prison. (It, in fact, says so elsewhere in the letter.) We also know that Paul never got out of prison, but died there. Which means that Paul, the author of a good chunk of the New Testament and an important leader of the Church, was wrong about God's will. I find that rather encouraging--when I mess up, I am in good company!
But I think the most important consequence of quizzing is how it changed me and my worldview. Those verses I memorized sunk in and changed how I move through the world. Verses like these:
- There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for we all are one in Christ Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:18ish).
- If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone (I think this is in Romans, towards the end).
- Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers (Hebrews 2:11)
- You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else. For at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same thing (Romans 2:1).
- Give to the one who asks you and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you (The Sermon on the Mount?)
- Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world (James 1:27).
- No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:11?)
- But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).
- For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, or anything else in all of creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:39).
Note: All the verses in this post I typed out from memory (and all but one I memorized for quizzing). I thought it was appropriate for this topic. I am pretty sure there are some mistakes, though.
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