The Word Can Change You

Series: Hungering for the Word

I know a man who is very passionate about the Word. When he was in college, he considered going Premed, but instead chose to pursue a degree in Bible. His freshman year he developed a strong desire to memorize scripture. He met a man named Marlin (or Merlin, as I like to call him), who worked with him daily on his memorization. Marlin taught him a special strategy for scripture memorization.

By the time he graduated, he had memorized the Sermon on the Mount, I and II Timothy, part of Acts, I Peter, most of I John, II John, chunks of the gospels, the first five chapters of Revelation, nine chapters of Hebrews, etc. After graduating and getting into ministry, he spent a few years teaching a freshman Bible course at ACU. He would let the students play “stump the chump”--they were allowed to look up any verse in the New Testament, read it aloud, and if he couldn’t tell them the exact book, chapter, and verse location of the excerpt, they got an extra point on their next test. They only got one extra point the entire semester.

Early in his ministry he met a very special man named Keith Barnett. Keith lived in a small Midwestern town. When Keith was nine years old, he was getting off the school bus one day and preparing to cross a street to get to his house. He waved excitedly at his mom, who waited on the other side of the road. As he stepped into the street, a car hit him and dragged him 70 feet. He lived, but he had brain damage, his speech was impaired, and he walked with a limp. However, the accident did not damage his heart of gold.

One day at church, Keith approached the young preacher and said, “Mister, I would just give anything in the world to be able to get up and speak the way you do. I want to know scripture that way.”

The preacher replied, “Well, Keith, of course you can learn to do that. I can teach you, if you’d like.”

Keith’s face lit up. “You would...teach me? You would do that for me?” The light left his eyes as he came to a realization. “But...I’m too dumb to learn how to do that like you.”

The preacher says his heart broke whenever Keith said those words. “No, Keith,” he told him. “You are NOT too dumb. We can work together. You pick the passage you want and I will teach you how to learn it.”

Keith was so excited. He worked with the preacher several days a week. The preacher taught Keith the things that Marlon taught him several years before. Keith’s mom said that Keith would pace back and forth across his room every afternoon, reading and reciting over and over. He worked and worked, practiced and practiced. When he was ready, he called the preacher and asked if he could meet him at the church building to recite his chosen passage.

They met in the preacher’s office and Keith recited the parable of the ten virgins, with passion and vigor and a light in his eyes. Keith did not miss a word and, more than that, he felt the words as he said them. It was more than simply memorizing words from a page. Keith felt accomplished. He felt like he’d worked hard for something and produced visible fruit. His disabilities and shriveled appearance faded as he spoke the very same words that Jesus spoke long ago.

When he finished his recitation, he was so overwhelmed by the weight of his accomplishment, by the realization that he had put every bit of his heart into learning his chosen text, he collapsed into a chair, sobbing with his head in his hands, thanking the young preacher.

The next week, Keith stood in front of the church of 700 people and recited his passage and gave a lesson about it. Tears flowed and hearts filled with joy as Keith spoke with confidence and zeal about the word of the Lord. His mother’s tears were silent; she glowed with pride.

Keith, a poor, disabled, twenty-four year old man who was still fully dependent on his mother, discovered things about himself that he did not know existed as he memorized scripture. The act of memorizing and reciting scripture was a humanizing act for Keith; he was affirmed in a way that no other accomplishment could offer.

Dear God,

Thank you for the saving power of Your word. Thank you for its singular ability to change us, recreate our perceptions of ourselves, and to bear fruit in our lives. Draw us nearer to Your heart as we connect with You through the Word that You have given us. We love you.

Through Jesus’ name,
Amen.

Erin Daugherty
Stephenville, Texas