The easiest way for something to stick in my brain is with an analogy. This is especially true for things I learn during a lecture or sermon. For many sermons I struggle to retain the main point, sometimes scribbling it on the back of a church bulletin, other times trying to recite the one or two main points in my head as the pastor rolls along. The trouble with the scribbling technique is that I end up discarding or losing the bulletin. The trouble with the mental summarizing is that I retain it up until the end of the sermon and then all it takes is a doxology and lord's prayer to subsequently wash the whole thing out of my head. Many are the times when leaving church I turn to a companion and have to ask them what the sermon was about because I no longer have a clue. This is really frustrating because I go to church more for the intellectual content than for the ritual.
So imagine my enormous gratitude for having a pastor that is a gifted public speaker who writes very clear sermons and who frequently illustrates them with vivid analogies that deepen my emotional grasp and lengthen my mental retention. The following two analogies have repeatedly popped up in my head over the last several weeks:
A seal who loves his zoo trainer is able to hold a fish in his mouth and not swallow it, confident that the loving trainer will reward him ten times over with more fish later. ( The Sea Lion and Self-Discipline The Reverend J. Donald Waring † February 21, 2010 ) Download Patient_loving_sealion_DON
A mouse is fooling himself if he thinks he can walk out of a glue trap by mere diligence and willpower -- his only hope is if someone comes along and pours vegetable oil on the trap, dissolving the bonds that the mouse could never hope to dissolve on his own ( Of Mice and Moon. The Reverend J. Donald Waring † January 10, 2010 ) Download Of_mice_and_moon_DON
These are viewable directly (search for the title) at the sermon archive \web page.
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