I preached at church this past Sunday and decided to try a slightly different approach to organising my study time. Because I'm at the beginning of this whole journey of Word ministry and preaching, I'm regularly experimenting with how I try to get the work done.

For some, the thought of figuring out how to make a system happen seems like torture. For me, with a background in logistics, systems are kind of a comfort zone. I like setting them up. I like tweaking them. Right now, I kind of have the perfect excuse because I'm regularly having to produce work, but there's enough time in-between (except for November, November's going to be crazy) for me to try to change something.

This time around, I wrote all of my notes out on index cards as I was studying, I typed up what I wrote down if it seemed significant or lasting, and then just took my pile of cards (maybe 10 or so, with small handwriting) and put them in the recycling.

I wonder if trying to keep every scrap of information is really necessary. While I'm sure I will be preaching a sermon on this passage again in the future, I won't be preaching the same sermon I've just preached again. What I said on Sunday was for that group of people on that particular Sunday.

I've still got my script saved and searchable because bytes don't take up space. But it's moved into an archive folder.

Because I have a lifetime to study the Word, I honestly don't know that I need to keep every bit of information handy because I have the source material. I've got the Bible in too many formats. And so, maybe it's okay for my notes to be ephemeral. Maybe it's okay if water gets spilled on water-soluble ink. Because the thing is having the Word. My notes could be wrong, after all.