Thursday, January 11, 2007

Deep Thought Thursdays: Practice is important

I've thought some about what type of weekly features to have on Luthermatrix. I've come up with two, Deep Thought Thursdays and Sunday's Stories. Judah, or anyone else, if you have any good ideas for weekly features let me know, I'm still open to suggestions.
Peace,
Chris


Practice is Important
This past term I have been learning Hebrew. Yes REALLY learning Hebrew. Every day I go over verb conjugations, look at flash cards, and translate both from Hebrew to English and English to Hebrew. I’d done Hebrew before this year of course, but I hadn’t maintained a consistent routine of study. I had done class work, but that was it. Likewise when I learned German and Latin in High school, and the Clarinet in Junior High. I did the work, but no practice.
Work is what is required. Work is “the real thing.” Work is where brilliant insights are made and blinding flashes of inspiration flicker from some muse. Practice is the cornerstone of wrok. It is the furnace in which the tools of work are forged. Practice is what is necessary for the required. All the flashes of insight in the world are short-circuited without practice. A muse without practice would be emaciated, she would not speak, only grunt.
And I say all this not only about learning languages, but about living. What we do not consciously commit ourselves to maintaining will fall away.

2 comments:

Dr.John said...

I can hardly wai6t for the first of the deep thoughts. Just don't put them in Hebrew because my Hebrew is very rusty.

Andy Kaylor said...

I complained today on my blog about my stumbling learning Greek. Essentially my problem is with having gone through a month or so of no practice.

But I like your thought in extending this to living. One of my favorite insights into the Christian life is this from St. Athanasius: "If you want to understand the writings of the holy apostles you have to try to live as they lived, just as to see a city you must go there." This is about practice. I didn't know that when I first read it. I "learned" it by living it.