iBliterated or iLluminated?

We live in an age of the “i.” iPods have taken the culture by storm, along with iPhones, and even iPads. In essence, our minds have been iBliterated. Before we know it, the five senses that our children read about in their science books will be replaced by iSmells, iHears, iSees, iTouches, and iTastes.

Charles Mysak, an old fashioned entrepreneur, has faithfully withstood the relentless assaults of big businesses on his humble used book stand. His wobbly, old card table has outlasted the Noblest of the Barnes’ book stores, and has lived to see the explosive growth of the Apple seed into the Apple orchard. Through the good times and bad, hot days and cold, moldy books and pristine plastic covers, his passion for nourishing the mind has kept him afloat. His books are the catalyst for his thoughts, and from his thoughts proceed a healthy functioning of the body and mind. He sees a culture whose eyes are opaque and dull, whose ears have long since lost their luster from the relentless thumping of ear buds, and whose minds appear to be in fast decline.

We have chosen to fill our minds with compost. Our neurotransmitters are overloaded with the infinite results from Google searches, and burnt out from blasting Justin Bieber. Our hearts are heavy from replacing real relationships with Facebook frauds and real theology with hopeless gimmicks and futile philosophies.

What we think influences how we feel, and how we feel influences what we do. But how do we change what we think?

What we truly need is iLlumination. Paul exhorts us in Philippians 4:8 to think about the things that are pleasing to God; the things that are indeed excellent and worthy of praise. He explains to us in Romans 12:2 that we are transformed by the renewal of our minds. When we fill our mind with God’s Word, when we dwell on the person of Jesus Christ, only then do we begin to experience freedom from the bondage of a hapless mind. When we conform our minds to Christ, we will find it more natural to conform our lives to Him as well.

So in a sense, Mysak is right: the mind does need to fed. But what the mind does not need are empty words or flashing screens. What the mind needs is a healthy dose of the Word of God. One day Mysak’s folding table will collapse, the pages of his books will turn to dust, and those printed words will be forgotten forever. But there amidst heaps of dust and rusty table legs will remain the one book that can withstand the test of time. There, still true, still applicable, and still iLluminating the way, etched into the hearts and minds of generations to come, will be the Bible.