LEADERSHIP SERIES: The Disciple of Memorization

I’m reminded of a recent article in the July 2009 SMITHSONIAN titled “Salami, Mr. Holcomb?” memorializing, in a Lucian Perkins' photo, the grueling “plebe” experience. Parts of that experience are intense memorization drills, including, for example, the lunch menu. Holcomb (the plebe) received the blistering verbal pounding of the senior midshipman, Sandee Irwin (one of the first women at the Academy) for forgetting salami in his recitation. Memorization drills help build the knowledge base upon which plebes grow into midshipmen.

One can't follow advice if one does not choose to remember it and remembering is a result of an attitude adjustment. Our military academies think this adjustment is important – beginning with memorizing a lunch menu. They had a model from which to work: the Old Testament. God commanded consistently to “remember,” even providing visual metaphors and reminders (altars, clothing, adornments, feasts, festivals etc.)

Proverbs 7:1 [Lindell] My son, keep [remember] my words [follow my advice] [do what I tell you] and store [treasure] up my commands within you [stick to it]….

Our learning to "treasure" the commands and deciding to pay attention to the instruction that flows from Wisdom should become part of our life-long learning. The opposite way of living is called foolishness. In the first nine chapters of Proverbs, both Wisdom and foolishness are presented in the feminine and the latter as a seductive, but “religious,” adulteress (see verse 14).

She is attractive: provocative; stimulating; enticing; full of energy, and, she even smells good. How easy it is to be sucked into the “way of the world.” Just as in all good counterfeits, the distinctions are subtle. The seduction mimics the real. Do you know what is real? Can you discern the distinctions?

Are you remembering to remember to do business God's way?


Copyright ©2009 by P. Griffith Lindell