Thinking About It Some More

Concept Eleven - “The Flip-Catch”

Have you ever walked into a dark room, and, without even stopping or slowing down, flipped on the light switch as you entered?  Think about it a minute.  The room is dark--then suddenly the light goes on.

Did you ever walk into the same room, and, without stopping or slowing down, attempt to flip the light on and miss the switch?  What happens then?  Nothing.  Darkness stays in the room until the light switch is turned on.

In a similar way, my student and I discovered, while working with our collection of “First Phrase Cards,” that each card, unless we already knew it well from past experience, needed a “flip-catch”--something that would trigger the first phrase in our minds, just like turning on the light.

Some of our “flip-catches” come right out of the text.  For example, the NASB verse found in 2 Corinthians 5:20-21 has a first phrase that reads...

Therefore, we are ambassadors for

Because the word ambassadors is not very common, that one word “turns on the light” for this verse.  We would look at the reference and say, “That’s the ambassador one.”

Once the ambassador connection has been made, the first phrase will be much easier to recall.

So our “first phrase” games and exploring became in some cases a two-step process--recognizing something in each verse or passage which kind of stands out.

Sometimes the “flip-catch” had something to do with the letters themselves.  For example, Romans 15:4 in NASB has a first phrase which reads...

For whatever was written in earlier

We noticed there were three words beginning with the letter w.  This became our “www verse.”

Another example--the first phrase from 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 reads...

And even if our gospel is

If you look carefully at the first few vowels in the line, you will see they go in order--a, two e’s, then i, o, and u.  So this became the “vowels in order verse.”

Sometimes two verses were similar, or addressed the same topic.  We called those verses “twins” and compared them to each other, as though they were grouped together.  Noticing their similarities and differences helped make those two passages easier to recall.

Sometimes a verse or its topic would remind us of a personal memory--for example, a place where a certain praise and worship song used that verse or idea as its main topic.  We would picture that location and mentally place that reference there.

Often we would use a “catch-idea” instead of a “flip-catch.”  As an example, Ephesians 4:1-2 is the first two verses after the half-way point  in the book of Ephesians.  We would say something like this.  “This verse is the start of the second half of Ephesians.  Paul is writing, and at the beginning of the second half, he describes himself as a prisoner.”  So this passage was not only linked to the prisoner concept, but also to its relative location in the book from which the reference is taken.

The conclusion here is that “flip-catches” and “catch ideas” may help you recall the first phrase.  Once the first phrase is remembered, you will be well on your way to seeing that particular “train pull out of the station.”

Concept Twelve - “The Observation Platform”

Have you ever stood at a high place looking over a beautiful landscape, a valley, or a river?  Sometimes at places like that an observation tower or platform is built.  The idea is that you are there to look at something.  As you look, the scene impacts you.

It’s amazing that our brains can take in so much visual information and process it all, at the same time allowing us to feel emotions like wonder.

I suppose the process would be less magical if at the same moment you were required to do something that took a lot of concentration.

So one of our key concepts is “Just look at it.”  Look at the verse, in a relaxed and unforced way.  Don’t worry if you cannot remember it afterwards.  Just look at it without any sense of pressure or struggle.  When you come back later it will be a little more familiar than before.  And gradually, what at first seemed like something you would never remember, starts to be like a recognized friend.  It’s as though your brain says, “Oh, this one again.”

Seen from this perspective, the various verses in a collected group (for example, in Category 1) are all growing at the same time.  The first phrases are growing, the various phrases in the Slides or Flash sequences are becoming more recognizable, and it becomes a little bit  like a big picture gradually coming into focus, or, like we mentioned in earlier sections of this discussion, like blades of grass on the lawn or trees in a forest growing up together.

Detour - A Story

A Story - “The Two Librarians”

Once upon a time a person who looked a lot like you walked into a very large building.  It was a beautiful building with marble pillars and arches and lots of steps.  (Anyone walking up to the building was sure to be impressed.)  And over the front entrance was a single word--LIBRARY.

The person who looked like you walked in and was immediately surprised to find a fairly small room with a front desk, a large screen on the wall behind the desk, and a librarian.  That was all.

The librarian said, “Hello.  May I help you?  You look surprised.”

The person said,  “I am surprised.  When I climbed up the front steps, I thought this was a huge library.  I didn’t expect to find just one small room.”

“There’s more here than meets the eye,” the librarian answered. ”This is the library where everything you ever learn or experience is stored.”

“Where are the shelves and the books?” the person asked.

“We don’t use shelves and books,” was the reply.  “We have systems you would never imagine for storing information.”

“Where?”

“Behind this wall, but you can’t go back there.  You can only visit this front section.”

“What’s the big screen for?” the person asked.

“That’s where the information is seen when you ask for it to be retrieved,” the librarian answered.  “You see, when you bring me information, I pass it through this little opening in the wall.  Then the inner librarian takes over.”

“Inner librarian?” the person asked.

“Yes.  I’m just the outer librarian.  I do things everyone understands.  I can talk with you and think with you.  But the inner librarian, that’s a different story.  Very few people know very much about the inner workings of the library.”

Well, I would like to find out more,” the person said, “because I have a  project I’m working on, and I need to bring you a lot of information, which I am supposed to memorize, and after memorizing it, I need to be able to recall all of it, or any piece of it, quickly and accurately.”

“What you’re saying,” the librarian said, “is that you want to bring me a lot of phrases, which you want to appear on this big screen whenever they are requested.”

“Yes,” the person said.  “That’s exactly it.  May I just bring you all the phrases and leave them here with you?  I have hundreds of boxes outside, filled with phrases.”

“You better sit down.  The librarian said.  “I think you will need to know some things first.”

And so the librarian started describing things the person had hardly ever considered.  “To begin with,” the librarian said, “the inner librarian doesn’t store information the way you imagine.  There are no shelves or books, and things don’t necessarily get lined up in sequence either.  Some things are duplicated and stored in multiple places.  Some phrases are divided up, and the pieces are put away in different places. And there are millions of tiny mirrors on everything, so that one beam of light can go bouncing around from one place to another, faster than lightning, collecting all kinds of ideas, and then projecting them on the big screen you see out here.”

The librarian continued.  “There are other things you should know too.  The inner librarian doesn’t sleep like you do.  In fact, when you sleep, the inner librarian goes to work, sorting things out that are still in the Collection Room.  You see, not everything is analyzed and stored right away.”

The person thought a moment, and then spoke.  “Do you have any suggestions for me?  I really do have a lot of information to bring in.”

I’ll give you a few suggestions,” the librarian said, “but after that, it’s up to you.  If you follow the suggestions, I think it may go better for you than if you don’t.”

What are the suggestions?” the person asked.

“First,” the librarian said, “the inner librarian is a lot like a child.  It will do better with many small challenges than with a few really big ones.  So divide up your challenges before you come.”

“Second, if you bring too much at any one time, the Collection Room can get too full to work in.  Then the whole process of sorting slows down.  Be sure to bring the workloads in reasonable amounts.”

“Third, the inner librarian needs to breathe.  It can’t focus continuously on the same idea for too long.  It needs variety in the information and in the expectations.  The inner librarian also works best when there is less pressure, more laughter and more playing.  It grows stronger when it is nurtured than when it has endless demands placed on it.  And it responds well to rewards when they are appropriately given.”

The person looked at the librarian.  A few seconds went by.  “You’ve given me some things to consider,” the person said.

“There is more, much more,” the librarian answered, “but I’ll let you think about what you’ve heard.  Take it to heart, and you may find surprising results.  But be warned also.  Ignoring what I say can lead to high expectations never realized.”

The person walked out into the bright day, past the marble pillars and down the long sequence of steps.  The building shone bright in the afternoon sun.   It was a beautiful building.  (Anyone who looked at it would surely have been impressed.)

Concept Thirteen - “Bite-Size Pieces”

Years ago the youth group I was part of attended an end-of-the-summer camp.  One of the opening day activities was a little contest involving food, and I was chosen to be the participant from my group.  Someone from another youth group was my “companion,” not there to eat anything, but rather to be the other member of my team--I suppose cheering me on.

The “food contest” had several stations.  At the first station you had to eat a piece of bread.  At the second station you had to drink a glass of water, and so on.  Perhaps I wasn’t listening when they gave the instructions, because when they gave the signal to start, I crammed that piece of bread pretty quickly into my mouth.  After all, I knew that glass of water would help me swallow the bread.  But as soon as I had the bread in my mouth and turned to go to the next station, where the water was, the leader said that no one could go to the next station until they first swallowed all the bread.

This was bad news.  I was surrounded by a lot of kids from the various youth groups represented.  There was no way I was going to spit that bread ball out into my hand, not with everyone looking on.  So I labored away at the hunk of bread in my mouth and watched while my more intelligent competitors quickly ate their pieces of bread in small, bite-size bits, and then moved quickly on to the next station, where no doubt they also swallowed the water in small gulps as well.

Naturally, the entire crowd of onlookers traveled with the frontrunners in this contest, which meant that by the time I finally finished the piece of bread, I was not only hopelessly out of the race, but everyone, onlookers and contestants, had all moved on, and my companion and I were still way back at station number one, the unfortunate image which resulted when someone chose “cramming” instead of “bite-size pieces.”

I probably don’t have to apply this analogy--I’m sure you already know where this is going.  But I ask you to consider it even so.

The minds and brains we have been given can function marvelously, provided we treat with respect the processes involved.  We need to understand the principles that govern how information is absorbed and retrieved.  And one of those principles is many, small “bite-size pieces.”

Continued at the Top of the Next Page

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®,

© Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995

by The Lockman Foundation.  Used by permission.   (www.Lockman.org)

               Copyright 2009 Steve Mugglin