Last week I wrote about my efforts to memorize the book of Ephesians by handwriting it out every day. Not the whole book yet, just chapter 1 (and then focusing on just a couple paragraphs). It’s been an enlightening experience to get up close and personal with the text of the epistle day in and day out.
The short summary of last weeks email was: I’m not really memorizing the book effectively, but it feels like I’m doing a really good study of it.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to observation. By looking at it and copying the text, I’m really observing the text of Paul’s letter. Each word is coming under examination as it ultimately needs to transition to my hand and the pen.
This kind of observation of the text is unbelievably profound.
We can only study what we see. And all too often when we read quickly, we don’t see all the details. When we skim over something, we don’t really pay attention to EVERY word. So this process has been significant in that I have to focus on literally every word in order to copy it over.
So I’m noticing things like words that are repeated (“to the praise of His glorious grace”) or how things are attributed (“according to the counsel of His will”) or breaking complex sentences down into their key actions (Paul’s first blessing paragraph focuses on spiritual blessings, adoption & predestination, redemption).
Yes, I’ve read Ephesians 1 many times. In many different contexts. Over many years. But until I stopped and committed to the discipline of hand writing the text, I never noticed all these little details.
It’s the power of observation. As a student of the Bible, OBSERVATION is the most powerful tool that you can ever master. Anything you can do to focus on observation will dramatically improve your study results.
I first learned about observation in the book Independent Bible Study by Irving R Jensen. It’s a 1962 classic. Every word in it is still relevant and true today. In the second appendix Mr. Jensen related a story entitled The Student, The Fish and Agassiz. It’s a story about the power of observation.
I’ve tracked the story down and put it out on my website. I HIGHLY encourage you to read it.
The story isn’t that long, really just a few paragraphs. But if you lean into it, you could gain skills and insight that will change the rest of your life.
Then for discussion or thought purposes, answer the following questions:
- Was three days too long to observe a single fish? Why or why not?
- What shift happened in the author to give him an appreciation of the fish?
- How did that study of the fish change the author for the rest of his life?
- Which of the above would you like to be true of you as you study the Bible?
Until next time,
Dennis
