In addition to this admission I will also tell you that as a note-taker I'm an intense rule follower. I like to form a concise outline...rambling preaching often drives me crazy. So, as I sat struggling a bit yesterday...I decided that I needed to accept a bit of grace in the note-taking. Exactly who am I taking notes for after all? If it's not deep enough I should spend my time digging, not fighting sleep. Thanks to my new Kindle Fire...there I sit with a Study Bible at my fingertips...as well as three Bible translations.
So, in a moment of freedom and grace, I stepped out of my control freak box and drew a line down the center of my new notes journal. As I listened and dutifully took notes on the speaker...I also dug about my study bible...scattering cross references and commentary points along the other side of the page.
I wrestled with myself about whether this was "kosher" but decided that God wants me to grow closer to him. I'm not dis-respecting the speaker, a most Godly man. In fact, I may be more respectful than those that simply choose to sleep when the point wanders or their attention wanes. I want to be pushing towards Christ at full bore...all the time...soaking in information like a sponge. It might not make for neat, perfect outlines...but it makes for lots of information gleaned for my heart.
FYI--although not the main point of this post...we were in Habakkuk...and what I took out of it for the week was...God is just and merciful, even though his people may not always understand his ways. "But the righteous will live by his faith" Hab.2:4
5 comments:
I need to get back to note-taking. It does help me stay focused and awake. I like to keep them in outline form, too, but that's not always easy.
Great reference verse. I like point 1,2,3 sermons. Others are hard to remember the point.
I do the same thing! I started taking notes because my mind wandered so easily. But I also look up Scriptures and questions I want to check out. I find it helps cement the truth of the sermon to my heart.exters
Oh my--I know exactly what you mean. Rambling preaching drives me crazy too. Our preacher sticks fairly well to his topic, but he's hard to take notes from. The preacher before him always had outlines, which I loved. :-)
I sometimes resort to writing out memory verses during the sermon (don't tell!).
I so love to take notes. I started with a notebook, but now write in my Bible. I had to learn that what I needed to focus on was how the scripture correspondence with what God needed to teach me.
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