Out of Our Depths Comes Joy

Yesterday as I was driving home from work out of the speakers rang the words in a strong radio voice: "Whan that Aprill with his its shoures soote the droghte of March hath perced to the roote."

It probably sounded like a foreign language or bizarre accent to most listeners, but for me, I knew it right a way, and continued the reading of the General Prologue of the Canterbury Tales from memory: "And bathed every veyne in swich licour of which vertu engendred is the flour, whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth inspired into hath in every holt and heeth…" in the weird Anglo-German accent that characterizes Middle English.

When I was a junior in high school I had to memorize the first 20 or so lines of the General Prologue, and it has stuck with me ever sense.  It inspired me to spend some Saturday nights, before heading out with friends, to sit with a cup of tea and read from the Middle English.  That may make me a certified English major, but the broader idea it points to is how memorization generates spiritual transformation.

Songs sung in church for the first time are not as moving as the 43rd time.  The reading of Scripture only gains more meaning as it continues to wash over us as life progresses.  The words of our faith dig deep within us, and out of these depths comes joy.

Memorization and meditation are the winemaking of our spiritual lives.  As time progresses and the words of Scripture, the church, and our communities of faith wash over us and ruminate within us, the fruit of these words turns into a fine wine.  The word of God only gets better as it ages.

I don’t think this is as easy as memorizing Bible verses like crazy.  That’s a cop out.  There is no easy way here but to let time pass with a constancy of living within the story of God.  To not just know key verses but to know the whole story of God and his people, including the story overflowing before us today.  And while there is tragedy and hardship and suffering, the meditation of these words over time cause joy to come out of the depths of our souls, like the joy that dances upon one’s lips as she first tastes a well aged wine.