Memorizing Philippians - Week 1

So, here we go!

While I'm a little intimidated by the idea of memorizing a whole book, I'm also really excited about what God is going to teach us as we memorize Philippians.

Why am I doing this?
Read the beginning of this story here.  

This Week's Section
I don't know exactly how much is a realistic goal to memorize in one week. But the only way to find out is to try and see how it goes. So I've decided that the first section we'll attempt is chapter 1, verses 1-11. Here it is in the New International Version (NIV).

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons: grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ--to the glory and praise of God.

How To Memorize
How exactly does one go about memorizing something long? Here are several ideas I've used myself or found as I did a little searching and asking around. I plan to try several this week.

1. Read the entire book from start to finish every day. It is short enough to read in one sitting, probably in about fifteen minutes. We all can squeeze fifteen minutes into our day, right? The more you read it as one cohesive letter, the more familiar you will get with the flow and with the messages in it.
2. Especially if you are always on the go, find (or make) and listen to a complete audio recording of the book repeatedly. Make a tape or download an MP3 to listen in the car, while folding laundry, as you wash dishes, etc.
3. After reading it through a few times, begin to read it while looking for the answers to 5-W-How questions. Who is writing? Who is it to? What is happening? When was this written? Why was it written? How is this accomplished? Answering these questions will help us develop a good understanding of the book. We are not just memorizing a sequence of words here -- we are memorizing the Holy Word of God. We must make an effort to understand what these words mean, too.
4. Note key words -- words that are repeated throughout the book. These will help us identify the themes.
5. Copy the week's section out by hand. I'm going to try to do this once a day the first half of the week.
6. Try to write the week's section from memory. Be sure to go back and correct your mistakes. I will try this the second half of the week.
7. Write everything you have memorized so far from memory. (I plan to do this a couple of times at the end of each week once I've mastered the new section so I can start putting it all together.)
8. To learn each verse, break it down into phrases and repeat them out loud over and over until you get them word perfect. Then do the next phrase. Then put them together. Repeat until you can say the entire verse. 
9. Write and review flash cards with the first word of each verse (though since I'm trying to focus on sentences rather than verses, I don't know if this will really help).
10. Post laminated copy in the shower so you can review and practice there.
11. Write and review flash cards or lists of the first letter of each word in the verse or section. (Thanks to Ann Voskamp for this idea.) Carry this with you to test yourself while standing in line at the grocery store, waiting at the bus stop, on hold on the phone, or waiting for water to boil.
    
    Here's what this section would look like, out of the NIV (feel free to copy):

P A T S O C J T A T S I C J A P, T W T O A D: G A P T Y F G O F A T L J C.

I T M G E T I R Y. I A M P F A O Y, I A P W J B O Y P I T G F T F D U N, B C O T, T H W B A G W I Y W C I O T C U T D O C J.

I I R F M T F T W A A O Y, S I H Y I M H; F W I A I C O D A C T G, A O Y S I G G W M. G C T H I L F A O Y W T A O C J.

A T I M P: T Y L M A M A M I K A D O I, S T Y M B A T D W I B A M B P A B U T D O C, F W T F O R T C T J C – T T G A P O G.

Please comment with any additional ideas or recommendations. I will include your tips in next week's section.

I have a list of names, and I have committed to praying for each of you as we memorize Philippians. If you are joining me and haven't left your name, please leave a comment so that I can be sure to pray for you too.

Background of the Book of Philippians
I thought it might be a good idea to learn a little bit about this letter as we get started, so here is a brief introduction to the book. If you'd rather do your own study, please feel free to skip this section, but I do recommend reading Act 16:6-40 to learn about the founding of the church at Philippi.

In Acts 16:6-40, we see Paul and Silas travel to the region of Macedonia (modern-day Turkey) after being prevented by the Spirit of God from traveling to a few different regions of Asia. One night as Paul looked for leading from God about where to take the gospel message next, a man appeared to him in a dream, pleading for him to come to Macedonia, on the continent of Europe. Paul and Silas immediately boarded a ship and headed for Philippi, one of the most influential cities of the region. They met Lydia, who believed their message and opened her home to them. Quickly though, Paul and Silas ended up in prison after they cast a demon out of a fortune-teller and destroyed the income of her masters.

God miraculously rescued them from prison, and in the process, their jailor and his entire household believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul and Silas were forced to leave town soon after by a town judge, but they left behind a healthy young church. We see from Paul's greeting at the beginning of Philippians that they grew in number ("together with the overseers and deacons"), and we will see in the letter that they lacked many of the issues Paul had to address in other churches (such as Galatia and Corinth). 

Paul wrote the letter primarily to encourage these dear brothers and sisters. He thanked them for sending a gift when they heard he had been put under house arrest in Rome, and he assured them that despite possibility that he might be executed, his faith in Christ was sustaining him and he was in good spirits. He also discussed how to grow in their Christian faith. He urged them not to become casual about their faith but to press on and imitate the example of Christ himself -- the ultimate servant.

Will You Memorize Philippians with Me?

When I was in high school, I participated in a church-sponsored activity called Bible quizzing. We spent a year studying and memorizing books of the Bible. Each quarter, we attended "quiz-offs" where we would compete with other teams of students answering questions quickly and accurately. During those years, I memorized huge sections of Luke, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Titus, Philemon, and Jude. I can't quote them now, sadly. But, I did it... once.

In college, I'll never forget hearing a young woman recite one of the shorter epistles (I can't remember which one). She spoke those words with expression, not in the chant or sing-song voice that most people use when reciting. It was powerful to hear the entire flow of the book spoken so clearly, without seeing or vocalizing the verse and chapter breaks. But I told myself I didn't have time to do that myself.

Then last week, I listened to a podcast in which the preacher recited, again with expression, the entire book of Philippians. Hearing the entire book from start to finish (it took about twenty minutes) made so much more sense than reading it in small, bite-sized pieces.

I decided that I need to attempt memorizing again. I've chosen Philippians for three reasons:
1) because so much of it speaks to my current struggles,
2) because I've memorized so much of it before so I think will be easier than a less-familiar book, and
3) because it's short...ish.

I'll post each section I'm working on each week (one paragraph at a time), and then, if I can figure it out, I'll share a video update (I think that's called a vlog!) once a month. 

Will you join me?

If not, will you at least check in and ask me how it's going?

Saturday Evening Blog Post: January 2010

Each month, Elizabeth Esther, of "Kids, Twins, & Laundry Bins," hosts a blog carnival, The Saturday Evening Blog Post. Bloggers can feature their favorite post from the previous month, and find tons of great new writers. Visit her site, link to your favorite January post, or find other amazing bloggers.

I am passionate about the topic of "As long as it's healthy," in which I ask people to stop saying that about their unborn baby. (It's usually in the context of "We don't care whether we have a boy or a girl as long as it's healthy.") I have birthed two children who were unhealthy and I know firsthand that our love for them was powerful in its ability to see the person despite layers of life support and burdens of intense physical needs. It smacks of conditional love to hear someone say "as long as it's healthy.

A close second for the month is "Five Ways to Match Expectations to Real Life" where I talked about some of the biggest surprises of adulthood and motherhood, and how difficult those were for me to accept. Many commenters shared similar struggles and how helpful it was to hear that those things are difficult for others as well.

Going Back to the Beginning

Kelly at {this} restless heart is hosting a repost link-up today, where she invites bloggers to republish an old favorite. Today I'm repeating a post originally published October 30, 2009. It's the first of a series of posts that I realized I wasn't ready to write last fall. I'm ready now.

Exhausted from middle-of-the-night feedings and the summer-day grind of entertaining four young children, I fell into the hammock. The youngest two of my four kids had actually fallen asleep at the same time, while the other two were peacefully enjoying a movie... for the moment.

As I stared blearily through the leaves at the pale summer-blue sky, my thoughts began to swirl down their usual path, drifting like fall leaves.

"What if this is all there really is?" I thought. "What if the garbage I see in myself and the people around me doesn't improve because it can't? What if everything I've been taught about God and Jesus and things like progressive sanctification just isn't true?"

And finally, after skirting it for months, the ultimate question: "What if there is no God?"

I turned the words over and over in my mind, like a child examining a strange rock. The idea was starkly unnerving. Everything I believed about everything started with a holy, just, good God who interacted with us and guided everything that happened. Without God, everything I believed just crumbled into dust.

But over the previous couple of years, I'd grown increasingly convinced that my system of thought and belief was flawed. I'd tried to remodel, but it seemed that whatever was wrong was threaded through the entire thing. The only way to do this right was to completely dismantle it, down to the ground, and then rebuild. Carefully. Thoughtfully. Only putting pieces back in that I was sure of.

I decided to let the question rise like bread dough for awhile. What would it mean to look at the world without God in it?

In the shower the next morning, as was my habit, I whispered, "Please God, I am so tired this morning.... Oh." If God didn't exist, there was no-one listening, no-one outside myself to direct my appeals for help or guidance.

As our van careened down the highway at 65 mph and someone cut right in front of us, I started to say, "Thank you God for protecting us from an accident" but caught myself. If there was no God, then it was just random chance that the other driver hadn't caught the edge of my bumper and spun us around and over and into the guard rail. And no-one to thank.

Sitting in the dim echo room at the hospital a week or so later, I studied the black and white images of my daughter's heart contorting on the screen. A brightly-lit ring hovered in the center behind several metal twisties: a mechanical heart valve standing in for the deformed valve she was born with. And I realized that I could no more believe complexity like that, even with all her defects, had just happened than I could look at a beautifully-designed room and believe it all fell into place without any help or fore-thought.

I had settled one thing: someone larger than I had created this world and all the living beings on it.

With a foundation begun, I now had a starting point. If there is a being out there larger than me, I must ask new questions. Does this being have anything to do with the world or with us now? Does this being want us to know anything about him/herself? If so, how are we supposed to find out? Does he/she expect anything of us? If so, what happens when we fail to meet those expectations?

...To be continued

Embracing Aloneness

Once we got home from the hospital last week, I noticed just how many tweets/Facebook updates I sent during our short 24 hours there.

Hospitals are lonely places these days. They are always lonely, but especially now thanks to the H1N1 virus. Our hospital currently prohibits all visitors. Each patient is allowed to place just four people on an approved-caregivers list, and only two may be present in a room at any one time. You can't change the people on the list. At a recent meeting at the hospital, parents wept openly as they talked about how painfully isolated they were. They would not leave their child (and should not for many reasons), so they could not see the rest of their family.

Thanks to the internet, web cams, and phones, we can reach out through fiber optics and cellular technology. We read and write blog posts. We interact through Twitter, Facebook, email, video, and text messages. We try to remind ourselves through technology that we are not actually alone.

But technology is also a great way to hide from God.

The truth is, while I have experienced divine grace and strength in the midst of terrifying and overwhelming circumstances, I cannot forget the human part of those experiences. God has allowed some incredibly difficult things into our lives.

Every time Ellie got sick or needed a procedure, I wondered "Is this It? The last one?"

And then, one day, it was.

You would think that, having experienced God's grace in the midst of pain and loss, it would be easier to trust, easier to step forward into the unknown. Maybe it's because the pain is still so fresh, so raw, but I'll be honest. I am afraid of the next hard thing. I struggle to trust that God is really at work in our lives for our good and his glory.

Being at the hospital brings those fears to the surface. Instead of facing them, I tend to drown out the nay-saying in my head with conversations with others.

Instead of talking to God about my fears, I talk to friends

Instead of taking comfort in God's words, "Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you," I lash out, "I don't want your company. I want relief. Don't walk through it with me -- get me out of it."

But, for God's reasons that I won't ever understand, we all must walk painful lonely roads some day. We all have to learn by experiencing it, not just reading it or hearing it, that we are never alone if we are one of his.

Have you ever noticed that when you are going through a tough time, the best comfort comes from those who have been there? By going through pain ourselves, not only do we learn more about trusting God, but we learn how to encourage and comfort others when they find themselves there.

I think perhaps God allows us to be physically alone to help us grasp how completely not alone we truly are.


I need to learn to turn off the distractions and embrace that experience. Embrace him.





This post is part of "Tuesdays Unwrapped," hosted by Chatting at the Sky.