'Your Word have I hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You,' wrote the Psalmist.
What is the deep heart, and how can we 'hide' things there that will influence what we do - and don't do? Is this related to the 'renewing of the mind' to which St. Paul refers, in Romans 12? Is 'the heart' and 'the mind' different references (one Jewish and the other more Hellenistic) to the locus of thought, feeling and action?
Is this another way of talking about 'the centre' of our being, the depths of our soul, the deep well, the place within from which springs all thought, feeling and action?
To really make yourself go, 'hmmm,' read Nicholas Carr's 'The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains.' (See Amazon's blurb to this book, at the bottom of this article)
Contemporary research reveals that our brains are very 'plastic.' Rather than being programmed and fixed with thoughts, impressions and feelings for life, they are constantly being rewired, with new 'rivulets' of the mind being formed by what we take in, and how we take it in, seemingly making new ways for interaction within and then responses without.
We are constantly being 'programmed' and reprogrammed in new ways. Various areas of the brain light up, expand to increase capacity for the unique interactions that fire there and that are being stored there. As this happens, other areas of the brain, those not being used (as much, or any more) are taken over by the new and expanding synapse-interactions.
What we put in, allow to come in, look at, hear about, think about, changes our brain, changes our mind. (Our eye is part of the brain. We take in through the eye and the image(s) cannot be filtered. The images are noted and stored within. Added to, stored in our brain, it changes us, whether we want it to or not)
If we don't keep up with our apprehending of the 'good' then the 'bad' will take over.
Hiding has the sense of 'the secret' - even of something precious. There is almost a 'sneaking' something out of the external world and bringing it within to be stored, protected and treasured. If we allow our minds to be filled (and filled up) with that which is not of God, not of the good and of the best of creation and of the plan and will of God for true human-ness, then there will sooner or later be no room for the good and the best, nor for the redemptive cure for the curse that ails us and the confusion that besets us.
This is not to hunker down and not think, nor some spiritually-inapt way of bubble-wrapping our lives, either externally or internally. It is to say, however, that we should be as careful as possible as to what is allowed to gain entrance to our deep heart, of what we look at, think about - and the ways we do it, and that despite our best efforts that we can't filter everything harmful out (we need a Redeemer, a Forgiver, a Healer to cleanse and set us free), and that we should seek to treasure and hide the those truths that God has revealed, both in Creation and through Revelation of Holy Scripture.
Above all, we need to invite into our deep person, to hide in our heart the Word that is Christ, the One in and through Whom God 'became flesh and dwelt among us for awhile' and who continues to indwell each follower of Jesus by His Spirit, those who have opened and who continually open their lives to His entrance-knock and entry.
If we hide God's Word in our hearts, God's Word will become fleshed out in our daily lives. If we don't, it won't; someone else's 'word' - will be lived out by us. With all that we take in, and when we don't pause or allow reflection for filter, to consider whether we agree or not with what is being presented to us, then we will be 'molded' into the ways of the world.
(The 'world' in Scripture (which we are not 'to love') is that which is in rebellion to God. It is 'all the areas of
creation and human being and becoming' that have been influenced negatively, are broken and only show God's plan now in a distorted way, much as does a cracked or curved-out-of-shape mirror). There is 'total depravity' in the world in that everything, every place
and every one has been influenced, shares, suffers, is broken, experiences
sin. That is not to say that everything and every place and every one
has been 'totalled' by sin and is the worst they can possibly be.)
But much of this is to talk only of individual disciples. The Bible speaks more about the collection of the People of God, the Commonwealth of Israel, the Community that is the Church, to and in and through whom He wills to set His world ('the cosmos' He so loved) free. This is another article. Yet also, however, the Church needs to hear God's Word and to store 'within its heart' too the eternal truths of God, so that the Church, re-membered and through all of its parts, may live out in our times the ways of God and the will of God. In this sense too, how we (as the ,) hear, listen, store, treasure and hide God's Word to us and for us and for our day, is as important as 'what now is that Word(?)' for our day. The 'what' and the 'how' of God's Word's entrance will influence the depth or shallowness of the way we live out the Message so desperately needed in our time.
Whose 'word' am I allowing primarily to shape my thinking, my life, my living? Immersed in what 'word' do I spend most of my time? Is my way of seeing life, my world-view, a product of God's Story - rich, diverse and compelling as it is, or am I being nuanced, courted and romanced by ways of thinking that I take in, which become my ways of thinking an acting, who's ends are 'Death' rather than the Life that Jesus called 'abundant.'
And not only 'am I hiding God's Word within' - but how am I hiding it, and what difference does this make?
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'The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains.'
“Is Google making us stupid?” When Nicholas Carr posed that question, in a celebrated Atlantic Monthly
cover story, he tapped into a well of anxiety about how the Internet is
changing us. He also crystallized one of the most important debates of
our time: As we enjoy the Net’s bounties, are we sacrificing our ability
to read and think deeply?
Now, Carr expands his argument into
the most compelling exploration of the Internet’s intellectual and
cultural consequences yet published. As he describes how human thought
has been shaped through the centuries by “tools of the mind”—from the
alphabet to maps, to the printing press, the clock, and the
computer—Carr interweaves a fascinating account of recent discoveries in
neuroscience by such pioneers as Michael Merzenich and Eric Kandel. Our
brains, the historical and scientific evidence reveals, change in
response to our experiences. The technologies we use to find, store, and
share information can literally reroute our neural pathways.
Building on the insights of thinkers from Plato to McLuhan, Carr makes a
convincing case that every information technology carries an
intellectual ethic—a set of assumptions about the nature of knowledge
and intelligence. He explains how the printed book served to focus our
attention, promoting deep and creative thought. In stark contrast, the
Internet encourages the rapid, distracted sampling of small bits of
information from many sources. Its ethic is that of the industrialist,
an ethic of speed and efficiency, of optimized production and
consumption—and now the Net is remaking us in its own image. We are
becoming ever more adept at scanning and skimming, but what we are
losing is our capacity for concentration, contemplation, and reflection.
Part intellectual history, part popular science, and part cultural criticism, The Shallows
sparkles with memorable vignettes—Friedrich Nietzsche wrestling with a
typewriter, Sigmund Freud dissecting the brains of sea creatures,
Nathaniel Hawthorne contemplating the thunderous approach of a steam
locomotive—even as it plumbs profound questions about the state of our
modern psyche. This is a book that will forever alter the way we think
about media and our minds.
