On Memorization

I decided last week that if I used a portion of the time I spent in the bathroom and the car memorizing scripture (no extra time required - just multitask while washing your face or driving to the store!), my day would be a degree more productive without much additional effort.

I started with something easy: Psalm 23. Within a week, I had it down, thanks to a Mormon Tabernacle Choir rendition of the Psalm that helps jog my memory about the order of the phrases.

Then I started in on Isaiah 53. I figured if Abinadi can do it, so can I.  Although perhaps someone could put it to music, too (Handel's Messiah doesn't cover it all)... it would help me.  I'm still working on it, but I have been interested to observe that, as I memorize, I have to first make sense of it - which means I find myself pondering why Isaiah used certain words or phrases.

Why, for example, did he refer to Jesus Christ as "a man of sorrows"? Of all things, I would not have considered His life as one marked with sorrow - particularly because of His triumphant victory over death and hell.  However, as I pondered, I understood that when He saw those who had rejected Him and the salvation He offered, it undoubtedly brought Him much sorrow.  But that cannot be all He experienced - after all, men are that they might have joy.  And He describes His joy multiple places in scripture.  Thus, it stands to reason that His mortal experience was not unlike mine - the deep sorrow He felt carved out a place in His heart for the joy, and His capacity for joy was expanded through His sorrows. 

No wonder He felt a fulness of joy after the completion of His infinite Atonement!