I am terrible at memorizing. I have tried and tried and tried, but I am hopeless. I guess I should have known this as I can’t remember any of my passwords and only know the first two lines of any song … well … except those from The Sound of Music.

I absolutely admire those who either have the ability or the dedication to memorize. Actors commit to memory entire plays and speakers entire speeches. I have one cousin who can recite long poems and another who has memorized whole books of the Bible while her husband can quote passage, chapter, and verse of what seems like every line of the Bible.


I have tried, made resolutions, started valiantly, but then stalled. I suspect, like those who say they are terrible in math or English, that while I might not have the memorizing gene, my main problem lies in my lack of perseverance.

But despite my dearth of verses committed to memory––verbatim––with book, chapter, and verse added with a final flourish, two good things have come from my initial desire to memorize, despite my stops and starts.

First, as I am doing my daily Bible reading, I am noticing more and more verses that I would like to memorize, and so each week, I write one of them down with the aim of reviewing it throughout the week. And I do. Enough so, and here is positive number two, that even though I might not remember the verse exactly, I know it is there, I can remember the context of the verse, and I know enough of the verse that I can rely on Google to help me place it in its exact spot.

God is a God of perfection, but we are not. We are a work in progress. So I won’t become despondent when I don’t get all my verses memorized, but I will keep on working at it, because as Paul tells us in Philippians 1:6: he is “confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

(Thank you Google.)

This past weekend I played in a “Step Away Scramble” at the golf club. I’m sure there is a more official name for it, but this is what we call it as it helps us understand the game.

The game is played as follows. There are four on a team. All of you get to tee off. You then select the best tee shot. From there, all but the person who hit that tee shot gets to hit the second shot. You then select the best second shot, and all (except the person who hit that shot) hit the next shot. This procedure continues until someone is on the green, at which point all team members get to putt.

Clear as mud, right? Sorry. But the point can still be made without a full understanding of the golf game. The reason for having a player step away and not play the next shot is so that one person on the team doesn’t dominate, that the team’s final score is not the result of one person’s ability but the result of a true team effort.

Sometimes this concept is lost in other areas of our lives, such as the workplace or in the Christian community where two scenarios emerge. First, many of us are content with letting one person do all the work. After all, they are doing a great job, better than we could have done. They are the better “player” (speaker, writer, theologian, mathematician, etc.). Second, the “better player” often likes the attention and accolades. Likes being relied upon. Likes being the stalwart of the team.

But both are problematic as one fosters weakness and the second, pride.

The Bible is full of reminders of people working in tandem or as a team: Moses had Aaron, Paul had Barnabas, and even Jesus had his twelve.

When the Corinthians were aligning themselves behind a particular man, Paul reminded them of not only the interconnection of the workers, but on God’s ultimate control over all.

“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow” (I Corinthians 3:6-7).

When this same group of people wanted to elevate the importance of some Christians over others, Paul again had to remind them that “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:12).

And when each member doesn’t take his or her part, or share responsibility with others, then everyone suffers as we see twice with Moses. The first is in Exodus 17 when his raised arms in prayer grow weary and he needs assistance from Aaron and Hur to hold them up in order to insure victory for the Israeli army; and then in Exodus 18 when he was trying to handle all the people’s disputes on his own, and his father-in-law advised him to share the responsibility. Not only did such a move improve Moses’s health, but it empowered others and allowed disputes to be handled more efficiently.

So where do you fall on the “step up” or “step aside” spectrum? Remember, we are meant to work in community, to share responsibilities not to shirk them nor to selfishly hang on to them.

“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God (Psalm 20:7).

I have always called it financial prudence. Fiscal frugality. But in reality it is pride and selfishness.

I have been helping a young woman in a third world country with her education. It makes me feel good to be assisting. Very Christian of me. Self-sacrificing. But it really isn’t. Because it hasn’t cost that much, at least not in American dollars, and a friend is helping me with that cost.

However, there was a slight misunderstanding. We all thought that there would be only one investment, but it turns out that that initial investment was only the beginning. What none of us knew was there would be two to three more years of registration dues, exam fees, and administrative costs. Suddenly, that feel good Christian “sacrifice” that was only a slight withdrawal from one of my accounts now had a bit more bite to it, and I have found myself logging into my bank and checking those accounts a lot more frequently.

Then came the text. Let it be known that I initiated this last conversation asking how classes were going. What I received were pictures of her in the hospital receiving treatments for a blood pressure issue. I waited, knowing what was coming next . . . a request for financial assistance. Third world countries are not known for their health coverage, you know.

My thoughts and posture? Heels dug in. My answer would be no. I had already spent a lot of money. Many times over the initial agreement. I had things I “needed” that money for. I had things I “needed” to do around the house. I had plans for that money. And I didn’t want my funds to drop too low. Plus, she had other people she could contact.

But then the conviction came . . . and the reminder . . . that even over these last two years I have never been short of money, and often, despite my “meticulous” bookkeeping, I often find more money in my checking account than I think I should have. Despite multiple reviews of my addition and subtraction, I have no idea where the error is. My savings seems to be stable as well, and I really haven’t put on hold anything I have wanted or needed to do.

Suddenly two things became apparent. First, that I believed my security came from my own “chariots and horses” ––what I managed to hold on to financially. And second, that I had been attributing the balance in my bank accounts to be the direct result of my own abilities and resources. I was David taking a census of my financial army in order to take pride in what really wasn’t mine (2 Samuel 24:1; I Chronicles 21:1).

And this money really wasn’t mine. God had given me wonderful parents who had paid for my upbringing and education. He had provided me with good teaching positions and beneficial career moves at just the right times. He had given me an unexpected and hefty raise my final year of work, which allowed me a more comfortable retirement, and He has seen that I never lacked food on the table or a roof over my head, or for that matter, anything I truly needed and often wanted. God has been very capable of handling “my” money.

An even worse part of this whole situation was the revelation that my faith, trust, and the extent of my Christian love were only skin deep. They hadn’t come close to penetrating the heart. Easy to be sacrificial when there really isn’t much sacrifice involved.

And the worst part of this whole situation? She never asked for help. I went down this winding road for absolutely no reason. Wait . . . now that I think about it, God took me down this winding road for a very specific reason—to take a hard look at not the state of my finances but the state of my heart. And that has definitely been running a deficit.

Last week I shared the background story of an old hymn, the words which are still relevant today.

This week, I would like to share two songs that are just now hitting the Christian charts, one by the by the best selling female artist of all time—Cece Winans—whose last number one hit was in 2017, and the other by a relative unknown—Katy Nichole—who posted only a chorus on TikTok, but “in a matter of months, the clip had been heard more than 80 million times, leading Katy to finish the song.”

I share these two songs together and on the heels of “Jesus Paid It All” because just like Elvina Hall and John Grape’s hymn, both of these modern worship songs proclaim the power of the name of Jesus—one in a powerful anthem and the other in a crescendoing prayer. The style of music may change over the years, but the message never does.

Also, when I wrote this blog, the world was in relative peace. Now a portion of it is not. And while both of these songs were most likely written to speak to individuals as they face their personal struggles, they are also appropriate for what is happening in Ukraine. While we may not have any hand in deciding foreign policy, and some of us may not have the funds to send relief money nor the ability to help or harbor refugees, we all have the ability to pray . . . to pray for Ukraine and its people . . . and to pray in Jesus’ name, the most powerful name in heaven and on earth.

Here are Cece Winan’s “Believe For It” and Katy Nichole’s “In Jesus Name.”