Over and Over

I can remember where I was when I learned the soliloquys from Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar."  It was in Mrs. Evan's high school literature class.   And while I cannot quote any of those long literary masterpieces as I did back then, every now and again some parts of one or the other will rise up out of the gray matter to be recited again.  However, I cannot remember when I learned "The Apostle's Creed," or "The Lord's Prayer," or "The Doxology," or some other memorized piece of liturgy.  It just happened.  But, where it happened was in church services.

 

The "when" may not be as time specific as my Shakespeare memorizations, but the "where" is certain.  Church is where it happened.  While I was squirming through the hour and while I was paying more attention to quiet mischief, I was learning.  I was actually doing more than just learning.  I was being shaped by what I was receiving through a kind of spiritual osmosis.  I have come to the conclusion over the years that more soaks in than most of us realize.  There is something very positive and very life giving about those hours we spend in the worship services of the church. 

 

Many of us learned the great hymns of the church as our mothers and fathers patiently held a hymn book down low enough for us see while their finger moved along the page showing us where to read.  Those hymns I learned way back then from my mother's prompting became so imbedded in my spiritual memory that it often seems I walk around with a hymnbook in my heart.  I am grateful as an old worn out Christian that I have such treasures to sustain me for the rest of the journey.  I only regret that so many of our young are missing out on this spiritual osmosis which strengthens me on the journey.