Is it weird to enjoy memorizing the Bible?
It seems like it should be.
Memorizing is a lot like studying. And studying is boring, right? So when I decided to memorize an entire book of the Bible, something strange happened. Somehow, I was excited about it.
At first I was confused. Did I forget what dread feels like? "Did I mistake dread for excitement?” I wondered. But then I realized that couldn’t be true. I woke up this morning and made coffee with my ChemEx. That’s what excitement feels like - measuring out the perfect amount of freshly ground beans to the perfect amount of filtered water to create the perfect level of extraction. Clearly I know excitement. So why am I feeling that good ‘ole trusty feeling of excitement at the thought of memorizing a book of the Bible? This requires deep introspection - something must be amiss.
So I prayed. I asked God: “God, did you break me when you gave me that Holy Spirit I read about? My whole life I hated studying. Now all of a sudden I’m excited about it. What gives?” I didn’t hear a thundering answer from the sky. Lighting didn’t crack and the earth didn’t shake. But I did start to think of gifts.
Wait, what? Gifts you say? I like gifts. You mean like Christmas gifts, right? You mean like Barratza Virtuoso coffee grinders and a year long subscription to Trade Coffee? Sign me up! Well, um, not exactly, but we’ll get to that later. In short, they are some strange gifts I learned about in the book of Ephesians. That’s the Bible book I memorized. The whole thing. Start to finish. The NLT version. And for all you NLT haters out there, we can have a little talk if you’d like. And if you don’t know what NLT is, well, we can also have a talk. But not right now. I got a point to make, and I fully intend on getting down to it. So huff and puff about your translation snobbery if you’d like, but I’m makin’ my point.
“God, did you break me when you gave me that Holy Spirit I read about?”
Joy, happiness, peace, motivation, perseverance, endurance - these are qualities and emotions. So where do they come from? Who can explain it? OK, it’s taking a minute to get to the point. But it’s coming, I promise.
Science gave it a shot. And what did scientists find? Neurotransmitters, synapses and receptors, and hormones in the brain. Very nice. You discovered how these feelings work: neurobiological processes. However, there’s a problem you can’t solve: My experience of these feelings differs wildly from your explanations of how they work. There is a massive chasm between function and experience. Why does your explanation of function differ so greatly from my personal experience? I need you to close that gap. I need you to create a bridge from dopamine to joy. But you can’t. All you can do is explain function on one hand - synapses, hormones - and then talk about our experience of these emotions on the other. You can’t fill the gap between them. So what fills that gap?
God. Those emotions I mentioned are gifts that come from above - that come from God. They are gifts from a loving Father who showers his dear children with kindness, along with all wisdom and understanding. When I received the Holy Spirit, He gave me gifts. When you received the Holy Spirit, He gave you gifts too. When we get that unspeakable joy and excitement about doing something, that could be a sign it’s one of God’s gifts. So pray. Ask Him about it. What does He want you do to do? Because these gifts are special. They are meant to build up the Church, the body of Christ. These gifts aren’t meant for our own selfish gain - or to manipulate - but to build and strengthen the Church. And the church is not a building; the Church is people. We are God’s house, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, and the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself.
So if you get a desire to do something, and that something brings you joy, be happy about it! Even if that something seems weird. You can even be happy about memorizing the Bible. Whatever it is that brings you joy, that might be one of God’s gifts. He might want to use you in a powerful way. He chose you for great things, things that existed long before you were born. He might be inviting you to step into that greatness. He has a plan for your life. A purpose. And our God is a God of joy, happiness, and peace. So when you feel any of those emotions, they are from God - your loving Father. And He might be talking to you. He might be inviting you to step into greatness.
Will you listen?