My problem with earworms

EARWORMS.

It sounds disgusting, doesn't it!

EARWORMS?

To be honest, I hadn't heard this term until a year or so ago.

Even though I didn't know the word, I have long experienced the earworm phenomenon.

Here is how The Kennedy Center website describes it: "More than 100 years ago, Germans coined the term öhrwurm—earworm—to describe the experience of a song stuck in the brain. Scientists call it other names, like “stuck tune syndrome” and “musical imagery repetition.” But the creepy image of an earworm crawling into people’s brains caught on. There is even a musician known as DJ Earworm. "

My earworms haven't been songs, they are Bible snippets.

Here are just a few of the Biblical earworms that are now stuck in my brain, rattling around:

Because Your love is better than life (from Psalm 63)

I have seen the burden God has laid on men (from Ecclesiastes 3)

He was a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering (from Isaiah 53)

In wrath remember mercy (from Habakkuk 3)

Today's troubles are sufficient for today (from Matthew 6)

I believe. Help my unbelief! (from Mark 9)

I came to you in weakness and fear (from 1 Corinthians 2)

You are now filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy (from 1 Peter 1)

Why am I sharing my earworm problem with you? I hope that it will prove contagious. As a matter of fact, I'm hoping that I can infect you.

As you read the Bible, do so slowly. What phrases jump out at you? Write one down. Meditate on it throughout your day.

My problems with earworms has helped me as a pastor when it comes to writing sermons. Tomorrow is a classic case in point. The assigned Gospel lesson is Mark 10:1-16. I will be preaching on a single verse, an earworm these days for me:

But at the beginning of creation God made them male and female.

As Christians, let us be infected with Biblical earworms. Let us meditate on the Word of God both day and night.

Photo by Joel Muniz on Unsplash