Not Just Hearing, But Doing

I have been spending some time lately decluttering and reorganizing. In the process, I have come across several old journals I used for sermon-note-taking. The kind I carry with me when I go to church and use to make notes as I listen to the pastor's sermon.

As I reviewed some of these old journals, I made an interesting discovery.

Sometimes I take very neat, orderly, methodical notes. Those pages look something like this one:

Not all the pages are quite so tidy. More of them look like this:

The pages on the right hand side are the points the pastor is making in the sermon, or a listing of Scriptures he refers to, or perhaps writing down a particular quote from something he said.

The pages on the left side, those less tidy ones, are the thoughts triggered by what the pastor is saying.  Perhaps other Scriptures to refer to later. Or perhaps an application to my own life of what he is teaching.  Often it's something I need to do, based on what I am learning from what he is saying. So I suppose it could be said that the left hand pages are the "doing" pages, based on what I am "hearing".

Put another way, the right hand side is about what the Scripture says and what it means, and the left hand side is how I am going to apply it.

I'm not sure I had even realized I do that. At least not consciously. Of course, I knew I was taking neat notes on one side of the page and scribbling on the other ( I still do that!), but I don’t think I had given given conscious voice to the thought that what I was doing actually made a division between hearing and doing. Between teaching and application. But as I reviewed my notes, that's exactly what I found.

On the "scribbled" side are lists of Scriptures to look up. Lists of ways I can put the teaching into practice.  Things I need to ponder as I seek to apply what I have learned. Questions about what I've heard and how I can live it out. 

All those are ways to apply what I learn. All are ways to be "doing" and not just "hearing".

Isn't that what the apostle James had in mind when he wrote these words:

"But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers."  (James 1:22 NASB)