Thy Word I’ve Hidden in My Heart’s Deep Keep
The Storage No Technology Can Replace
More Than Terabytes in a Teenager’s Thumb Drive
One of the episodes in my favorite TV series, Person of Interest by Christopher Nolan, portrays a high school student who looks to be average. Yet, as is often the case, he is actually a mathematical genius and a prodigy in software programing. He develops a compression algorithm that condenses terabytes into a thumb drive. He later becomes an entrepreneur and a legend in the field for providing large storage capacity in a small space.
The Digital Hunger That Never Stops Growing
A prime vital need of the digital world, with its bourgeoning apps and usage, is storage space. Every device that is launched is promoted by mooting certain specs. Topmost on the list is storage capacity – how many gigabytes more than the previous or other models. The growth of digital age escalated exponentially with increase of memory in decrease of space.
Space crunch is not an issue confined to certain cities on terra firma. It is a major factor in the digital world. Researchers are scrambling to help their companies master the market through improving the unique capabilities of their product. Their catchwords and moot points are – greater processing speed, higher the number of applications, and size of the product. The smaller and thinner the model, the better the saleability of the product. The decrease in device size and increase in memory space are the digital world’s innovation thrust.
When Memory Moved from Mind to Machine
Multiplication of search engines, advent of smartphones, burgeoning of digital devices have given us instant access to information, anywhere and at any time. Ability to store that information in a small memory space has deleted the need to remember many things. It seems a redundant effort to keep any relevant data in mind, since it is ready in a click!
No one these days even makes an effort at remembering even basic multiplication tables, or conversion rates or any simple functions. A simple touch of the phone is all that is required to perform many actions that once upon a time needed the use of the mind.
Gone are the days when people would remember many people’s phone numbers as well as other details such birthdays, anniversaries and other minutiae with ease. Though there is a good side to all this, there is a reverse return that is not realized. It is that we have lost the art of memorization, of exercising the mind to retain, and developing recall mnemonics!
The Heart and Mind: God’s Original Cloud
The key to such a feat is the heart and the mind. Indeed, the heart and mind are second to none for storing and retaining information. Their ability to grow and expand is the added advantage of training them. The heart and mind have untold and infinite capacity not just for storage, but for learning, relearning and adapting. They are more versatile and multifaceted than any instrument that man has ever invented. They expand, grow, and serve even in later stages of life!
King David the Psalmist in the Bible says in Ps 119:11 “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” He also says in Ps 1:3 that the one who meditates (focus one’s mind) on God’s law day and night will be evergreen. The king seems to have discovered and declared that the best space for storing and preserving God’s Word are the heart and the mind.
Stone Tablets, Papyrus, and Power Sources
Of course, he did not have the many storage devices and cloud facilities that we have today. He did not have access to digital tablets but he di have storage devices such as stone tablets, papyrus rolls etc. Some would say that because he did not have all these, he was forced to use the heart and the mind as storage units.
That may be true, yet all our gadgets and instruments do not work unless they have been connected or charged by a power source. They also be hacked or corrupted or even destroyed remotely. Such devices can be shut down or made redundant by cutting of their power source. A simple glitch is enough to enough to make us panic and cause a cascade of issues!
What Happens When the Screen Goes Black?
What if you are in a place and a position where you have no access to such crutches and have to remember things, especially God’s Word? Will you become crippled and at a loss because you don’t have your devices. Are you in a place to be able to tap into your in-built storage apparatus? Can you draw input from your memory the Word needed for the hour?
Will you be able to draw strength from what you have stored of the life-giving word in your heart and mind? Many people who have been imprisoned for their faith have survived because they stored God’s word in their heart and mind.
All our technology and devices are only making us dependent and almost mindless zombies. We seem to have become like suckling babes that need sustenance from someone or something. This is not to say that it is wrong to use them, especially when you have them. The question is how will you survive and what will happen when you don’t have them!
The Only Storage that Cannot Be Corrupted
We recently passed through a time when everyone of our systems seemed to fail or proved to fail. Be it the educational, economic, medical, political, social or cultural construct, each of them ended up being of zero help in crisis. Everything around, and all that on which we built our lives have faltered. What was showcased and demonstrated was their inability to help us in time of dire need. Technology alone seems to be giving us a life, and to an extent appear to allow us to maintain a semblance of life.
When that too fails, we will be left with only the gifts God created us with and bestowed on us innately. Man was created and born to think, reason, analyze, weigh, and make decisions. This is what sets us apart from every creation of God and man!
When Every System Fails, This One Still Stands
How about exercising and using your in-built storage capacity and facility, your heart and your mind? Use them and train them well so that they available when other things fail!
What about teaching and training our children to use theirs to the maximum to stockpile Scripture? Keep technology as addendum and concentrate on helping them evolve their innate memory skills.
How about giving attention to developing a cache of God’s Word in your heart and mind? Tap in to gifts God has bestowed on us, and coach them to attain their full capacity and capability!
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