What to Do with New Insights

I love the lines Lewis Carroll wrote in Alice in Wonderland: "The horror of that moment," the King went on, "I shall never, never forget!"

"You will, though," the Queen said, "if you don't make a memorandum of it."

That's true. Someone quipped, "The stubbiest pencil has a better memory than the most brilliant mind." I have thought, I'll never forget this great idea! and the next day-or even five minutes later--it can have completely evaporated.

The old-timers had a saying, "Fear the passing of Jesus." The Living Word passes by, giving us glimpses of truth and fresh insights. We can allow the ideas we find when we read scripture to be fleeting, or we can latch on to the truth, write it down, and make it a part of our thinking and living.

Failing to record insights and going away and forgetting them is like the man who finds a pearl, admires it, tosses it down, and continues on his way. Our insights are like jewels we find. Are we going to pick them up, admire them, then toss them down or put them in a treasure chest so we can go back later and admire them? When we "fear the passing of Truth," we invest in notebooks to store our treasures. These notebooks filled with reflections of Christ become as priceless as a family photo album.

God intends for us to guard His teachings in the same way He guards His people. He keeps those He loves "as the apple of his eye" (Deuteronomy 32:10). Then in Proverbs we're instructed, "Guard my teachings as the apple of your eye" (7:2). The apple is the pupil or the center of the eye. In some versions the phrase is translated "most precious possession." While we love to know God carefully guards us, we can remember that He has asked us to also give that careful consideration to what He gives us in His Word.

Dear Jesus, I want You to be pleased with the way I receive and store up what You give me when I read Your Word.

"Wise men lay up knowledge" (Proverbs 10:14).