How many of us can remember the phone number from our childhood home. I still remember our home number from back in the early 1970’s.
I also remember the preamble to the US Constitution as well as paragraph from the Declaration of Independence that begins with, “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with …” And yet I sometimes struggle with remembering phone numbers of people that I know today. In reality, I don’t really have to remember them anymore as they are all in my contacts on my phone. I think I even have difficulty remembering my own phone number just because I figure someone will already know it because of it is in their contacts and quite honestly, I never call myself. I might talk to myself, but I never call myself. That would just be creepy.
Interestingly enough, I think we as a society have moved way from memorization because we find ourselves in a world that makes everything convenient. I remember studying the multiplication tables till it was rote memory learning that every number had a sum when multiplied to to another number. In reality 3x3=9 will always be the same and I did not learn to tap my fingers, close some loops or any other method. I also didn't use a calculator until I was in my senior year of high school. I did learn to use a slide ruler though. I simply memorized the sum based on the knowledge I have from recall. Everything at your fingertips sounds great until that one catastrophic time that you drop your phone in the toilet or some other body of water and guess what, "you didn't save anything to cloud." By the way, that whole cloud thing has me bewildered that all those number are just floating around.
Chuck Swindoll wrote, “I know of no other single practice in the Christian life more rewarding, practically speaking, than memorizing Scripture. . . . No other single exercise pays greater spiritual dividends!"
We might wonder to ourselves, "why memorize scripture." We have a phone, we have access to information, we can pull a verse up any time we want in any translation we want. I want to share a story to tell you why memorizing scripture is important.
Several years ago, as many of you know, I had a motorcycle accident. While I laid there and no one could open my phone as I couldn't recall the sign on pin, someone asked me who should I call. I had only one number in my head that was very old and that person was 900 miles away. I could not recall a single person's number as I had become so dependent on my "contact list." I was pretty much alone at that point and luckily some friends were going by and saw me and bike. They followed the ambulance to the hospital and were in the room almost immediately. The verse I could remember at the time was this single verse, (1 Corinthians 16:13-14)-"Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love."
I remembered it because of two reasons. It is a part of the tatoo on my shoulder that has the names of my daughters and because as I laid there trying to catch my breath, I prayed, "God let me see my daughters one more time." At that time, my lung reinflated and I could then breathe again. At that moment having memorized scripture brought me comfort. There was alot of times over the next several weeks and months that I relied on the scripture I had memorized. Scripture came to me at the most needed times. I didn't always remember the book, chapter and verse but I remembered the words. It is the words that will carry us when we most need it. It is the words that will lead us, it is the words that help us do the right thing.
So the answer is simple. You can't always rely on technology. A phone or tablet is nice but the memory of scripture stays in your heart and becomes a part of you. It brings us closer to the Creator who wrote it and the Christ who is embedded in it.
Psalm 119:11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
Psalm 119:105 - Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Let's light our path with the flashlight we have memorized in our hearts.
Much love,
Preach