Strengthening Attentiveness through Retentive Reading
Augustine of Hippo, one of the greatest theologians in church history, was a lover of Scripture, perhaps in part because of his dramatic conversion when he heard a childlike voice singing, “Take up and read, take up and read,” which he interpreted as a divine command to peruse the Bible. When he did, a light flooded his soul and the words from Romans 13 pierced his heart. For the next four decades, he displayed an unparalleled passion to know, understand, teach, write about, and live God’s Word. While much of what he penned was theological and scholarly, the following offers insight into how practical his approach was.
Whenever you read a book and come across any wonderful phrases which you feel stir or delight your soul, don’t merely trust the power of your own intelligence, but force yourself to learn them by heart and make them familiar by meditating on them, so that whenever an urgent case of affliction arises, you’ll have the remedy ready as if it were written on your mind. When you come to any passages that seem to you useful, make a firm mark against them, which may serve as lime in your memory, less otherwise they might fly away.[11]
Memorization of any kind, but of Scripture in particular, is both spiritually valuable and incredibly beneficial for your mind. Storing memories is something the brain handles in a unique way. Because it cannot retain all of the things we see, learn, or experience, neural pathways develop based on either the emotional strength of the input—such as any traumatic experience—or how much attention we pay to something through concentration and repetition. Attention is like a muscle in the brain: When we memorize something, we are giving our ability to pay attention a workout, which in turn strengthens and hones all of our cognitive capacities.
This is especially important as we grow older and the neural pathways in our brains begin to atrophy, causing memory loss and senility. Neuroscientist Anthony Newberg likens this to a car that starts wearing out, with various and sundry parts going bad a little at a time. Any memory-enhancing program, Newberg says, will improve a host of qualities—coordination, attention span, information processing, problem solving, social decision-making skills, even our intelligence itself.[12] Beyond that, memorization modifies our brains in such a way that the more we engage in it, the easier it becomes to learn and memorize even more.
When we memorize a passage of text, we internalize the words so that they become part of our makeup and our way of being in the world. Thus, when we commit things to memory, we are choosing to pay attention to those things that really matter; we are making an investment in the shaping of our personal worldviews. Yet, as important as this is, memory is becoming a rare commodity in this age of exponential knowledge growth.
Outsourcing Our Memory
More and more we rely on a store of information outside of ourselves. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have gone so far as to indicate that their ultimate goal is a chip that can be implanted in our brains so we can have immediate access to the already more than 18 billion facts in their Knowledge Graph.[13] While it is incredible to have so much information ever at our fingertips, the way cells wire together in our brains means that the more we turn to external resources instead of tapping into our own memory banks, the less capacity for retention we will have.
Not too many years back, when I needed a Bible reference, I would search my memory. If I couldn’t place the reference from memory, I would look up key words in a Bible concordance and peruse the list until I found the verse I wanted. Now all I have to do is ask my smartphone or begin to type a question in the URL field on my search engine—such as “what Bible verse talks about reaping?”—and I can instantly read Galatians 6:7 and related verses on scores of websites in any number of translations. While I could discipline myself not to use these tools, the truth is that I, like everyone else, find the convenience irresistible.
Although some argue that the face of knowledge has changed, that what we really need are new skills to retrieve and organize it, we are nevertheless spiritual beings. Therefore, accessing God’s Word on our devices, no matter how quickly or easily, can never replace having it hidden in our hearts. This is why I’ve become far more intentional about committing Scripture to memory. But first I had to overcome a strong personal aversion to the idea.
When I was a precocious elementary school child, my pastor signed me up for a Scripture-memory contest. He gave me one hundred Bible-verse cards to learn in preparation for the event, which was less than one month away. I know I labored hard over them, but to be honest, I don’t remember much beyond the dreadful contest itself. I sat there in the audience, palms sweating and heart pounding as if it would jump out of my chest as I tried to review those cards. They were beginning to look like some foreign language. Nevertheless, when my name was called along with that of a boy from some other congregation, I marched bravely forward. The two of us faced all those eager, expectant parents. The moderator began by giving me a reference to cite.
My mind drew a complete blank. The moderator offered the same reference to my competitor, who rattled the verse off like clockwork. Then I was offered a second reference, and a third, and a fourth, all of which drew blank stares from me. I’m not sure how long this agony lasted, but at some point I began to cry. My mom mercifully escorted me back to my seat.
Needless to say, I have never been a fan of that kind of rote memorization, although it has its own benefits, I’m sure. Yet retaining God’s Word is not only a valuable asset in our spiritual journeys, but it also uniquely contributes to the formation of our souls.
When God’s Word Dwells in Us
How often have you been deeply moved by Scripture in a morning quiet time, only to realize later that you cannot even remember what it was you read? The reality is that our brains are able to hold things in short-term memory for only about ten to twenty seconds. While study and meditation can help move God’s Word from short-term to long-term memory, it cannot accomplish this as well as the concentration and repetition that memorization requires. Therefore, if we want to go through our days with Scripture moving, guiding, and shaping us, we will need to commit it to memory.
This, then, is retentive reading. Far more than an approach to memorizing verses, however, it is a lifestyle of committing God’s Word to heart in substantial enough portions that it informs our way of thinking and being in the world. Jesus told his disciples that his words needed to abide in them (John 15:7-8), a sentiment Paul echoed to the church at Colossae: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:16, emphasis added). What would it look like for Scripture to live in you, to remain present to you at all times? While smartphones have made it incredibly easy to carry our Bibles with us, committing Scripture to heart ensures God’s Word is always at work within us. Even when we aren’t consciously focusing on specific verses, the neural pathways we have created through memorization continue to produce reverberating effects.
We tend to memorize those things—such as oaths, pledges, or vows—for which we believe the language is so important that we have to know the words verbatim. Committing these things to heart, Thomas Newkirk notes, is “an act of loyalty and deep respect, of affiliation.”[14] Memorizing Scripture is all of this and more, a tribute to the God who generously reveals himself to us through the gift of language, for it demonstrates that we care deeply about the things he has said. We value them enough to commit them to memory.
Dallas Willard said that if he had to choose between all the disciplines of the spiritual life, Bible memorization would be first. He called it “absolutely fundamental to spiritual formation . . . because it is a fundamental way of filling our minds with what it needs.”[15] The formation of our souls is God’s intent when he instructs us to store up his Word in our hearts, assuring us that this will help us avoid sin, live purely, keep from stumbling, and find delight in doing his will. He invites us to bind his words on our heart, promising that they will guide us, plant our faith in deep-rooted soil, and nourish our souls l
ike food does the body.[16]
When we commit something to memory for long enough and with enough repetition, we retain it for life. This is why you know your country’s pledge of allegiance even when you haven’t recited it for years. When I visited my grandmother in a rest home in her final months, she didn’t always recognize me, but her prayers were filled with Scriptures she’d learned long ago about God’s goodness and faithfulness. Memorizing Scripture is like money in the bank, a spiritual investment we know we will be able to draw upon a day or a month or a decade later, even to our final days of life.
Getting Practical
Earlier I defined retentive reading as a lifestyle of committing God’s Word to heart in substantial enough portions that it informs our way of thinking and being. By substantial portions, I mean having a goal of several verses, or a chapter, or even an entire book. This was once a normal practice among Christians, and I am convinced that anyone can do it with a little time, discipline, and focused attention.
I have tried a variety of methods through the years—from secular speed-memory plans to online programs to Bible-verse memory apps—but the one I’ve found most helpful and enduring is Andrew Davis’s An Approach to Extended Memorization of Scripture. He offers a number of excellent reasons for memorizing chapters and even entire books, such as having the overall context and understanding the big picture. My own motivation is that I’ve learned from experience that it is easier and more rewarding to learn a series of verses that flow together with a coherence and beauty only God could achieve than it is to piece together random verses like that Scripture memory contest of my childhood.
Davis points out that the Bible was originally penned for a largely illiterate culture whose exposure to Scripture was oral. Thus, when God instructed the people to meditate on his law day and night, he was telling them to commit the words they heard to heart so that they could focus on them during the daily grind of life and not just when exposed to religious events. For me, this means being able to walk through the passage or meditate on it while waiting at red lights or sitting in a doctor’s office or as my head hits the pillow each night. While today we are blessed with the benefit of literacy as well as instantaneous access to the Bible, I believe we will gain far more as we internalize God’s Word in the same way our spiritual ancestors did—by committing it to heart.
A Return to Simplicity
I learned about Andrew Davis’s Scripture-memory approach from a blog I regularly peruse, which brings me full circle here regarding the reading brain, technology, and our souls. Recently, my church joined an online Christian-media library that gives members of all ages access to an incredible array of Bible study and Christian-growth materials in every possible format: audio, video, printables, and online groups. Think of it—the finest teachers, the most popular studies, and cutting-edge media at our fingertips, any hour of the day or night! I can’t even imagine how beneficial this must be to churches large or small and to believers all over the globe. Yet to be honest, when I visit the site I feel a little like I’ve just been dropped into the middle of a grand amusement park. Turning this way and that, everything seems so enticing that I end up hopscotching around, reading a snippet here, watching a minute or two there, trying to settle on one amazing lesson over the other. Perhaps you can relate.
There is no question that our digital worlds offer us incredible ways to enhance our spiritual lives, and for this I am grateful. I believe that all of us ought to take advantage of anything that might improve our piety and form us as Christ followers. At the same time, it seems that perhaps we need to step back every now and then and consider how we are really spending our time and what contribution our spiritual activity online is really making to our relationship with God. The danger is that we can spend so much time nibbling around the edges of all the choices out there that we end up feeling spiritually sated while never having communed with God in meaningful ways through his Word.
In times like these, it behooves us to remember that as wonderful as it is to be able to access so many materials and options for growing in Christ, the most important resource we will ever have is the plain, unadorned Word of God. There is a blessed simplicity in sitting quietly before our Maker with only our Bible open in our laps. We read, we listen, and he speaks. Nothing else is really quite like it.
PRACTICE
RECEPTIVE READING
ESTIMATED TIME: 10-15 MINUTES
The law of the LORD is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the LORD is sure,
making wise the simple;
the precepts of the LORD are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the LORD is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the LORD is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules of the LORD are true,
and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
PSALM 19:7-11
THE PURPOSE OF THIS PRACTICE is to experience God’s presence through his Word by giving prayerful focus to a biblical text. Choose a passage of at least ten verses from Scripture ahead of time, and bring a journal to take notes. (Some recommendations for this kind of reading might be Joshua 1:1-10; 1 Chronicles 28:1-10; Matthew 9:27-38; Romans 14:1-12).
Prepare
Begin by acknowledging two things in prayer:
God is present with you to reveal his heart.
God is inviting you to read this passage in this moment; it has been provided for your growth in grace.
Give thanks and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you and speak to you through this time. Work on your ability to focus on the text and what you are gleaning from it. If your mind wanders, simply come back to the Scriptures and to God’s presence with you.
Read
Read through the passage slowly and thoughtfully at least two times, bringing all of your attention to it.
Reflect
In order to reflect on the passage, you will consider the three questions posed earlier in the chapter and expanded on below. Take the time to be thoughtful and prayerful, remembering that you are not interacting with words but with God himself. (Depending on the passage, you may find you need to break it up into sections. If so, work through the questions below for each part.)
What do the words say? What information do they provide? What are the facts here? Be sure to look for unusual details or things you might normally have missed. Don’t move on to the next question until you feel you have fully mined the passage for all the information it provides.
What do these words tell me about God, the author? What do I learn of his character, his ways, his attributes, or his heart from this passage? What might have been his motives for including this in Scripture? Jot down what you initially see, and then go back and ask God to show you anything you might have missed. Ponder these things deeply.
Based on what I have seen, what is God’s intention behind the words here? First, consider what he desired from/for the audience he was addressing when the passage was first written. Then prayerfully ask for personal revelation: God, what is your intention for me as I read this passage? Why have you invited me to consider this today? Is there a behavior to change? An action to implement? An attitude to embrace?
When you have finished, write a brief summary of your experience, including an affirmation regarding how you plan to apply these things as you move through the next day.
PRACTICE
RETENTIVE READING
ESTIMATED TIME: ONE MONTH
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
MATTHEW 24:35
AS WE HAVE SEEN, memorizing Scripture is greatly beneficial to both our minds a
nd our hearts. The purpose of this exercise is to cultivate attentiveness through concentration and repetition of Scripture. This practice will include the steps recommended in Andrew Davis’s An Approach to Extended Memorization of Scripture. (This is an abbreviated version of only one chapter of his book. For further helps and an expanded understanding of the process, please refer to that book.)
This practice takes place not in one sitting but over a period of time, with an estimate of about one month. At first you will need only a few minutes each session, but over time that will grow. By the end of the month, you will need fifteen to twenty minutes at a time.
I have chosen Psalm 145 because it is an incredible litany of God’s attributes and can become an invaluable part of your prayer life.
Session One
Read Psalm 145 all the way through so you have a context of what you will be memorizing.
Read verse 1 aloud ten times, focusing on the words on the page as if you were taking a mental picture.
Recite verse 1 aloud ten times, glancing at it only if you get stuck.
Session Two
Recite verse 1 ten times. (Review it first if you need to.)
Read verse 2 aloud ten times, focusing on the words and taking a mental picture.
Recite verse 2 aloud ten times.
Session Three
Recite verse 2 ten times. (Review if you need to.)
Recite verses 1 and 2 in order.
The Wired Soul Page 5
