Our minds and hard drives can be cluttered with many things. Our hearts also can hold a myriad of emotions, beliefs, commitments, and convictions.

I think most of us have experienced the challenge of having our computers slow down as the memory gets overloaded. It happens with the cell phones we carry in our hands as well as every other electronic device. If we have done much work with electronics, we soon decide that when we need to purchase something new, we want to purchase something with more memory (the most we can afford).

We marvel at all that can be stored in these devices that seem to get smaller every year, but we forget the most incredible storage of data and memory created or designed is the human brain.

I know you are likely thinking about how much you cannot recall no matter what your age, but the human brain is so complex that the exact amount of what can be contained is not measurable even though it must certainly be limited. What does science say about this most complex brain that our Creator designed and that exceeds any device created by man?

Some research now suggests that the human mind can hold as much as the entire Internet! One study found that each synapse in the brain could store an average of 4.7 bits; spread throughout the brain, that would be about 1 petabyte, the equivalent of 1,000 terabytes or 1,000,000,000,000,000 bytes. Other scientists suggest we have as much as 2.5 petabytes of memory storage.

So why do we forget things? It’s because it is not really about capacity. The reality is our storage process is slower than our experience of the world. Here’s an example. If we pretend, we have an iPod with infinite storage, even if we could store every song ever written we would still need to buy and upload all that music and then pull up individual songs when we wanted to play them. But what if we wanted to have all that music and could load it? It would take us 2,000 years to play it all.

Think about this truth. It is impossible to quantify the amount of information in our brain because it consists of more information than we are consciously aware of.

We sometimes get a glimpse of that when someone we know has a stroke.

Our brains consist of more than facts and faces and measurable skills. They also contain functions like how to speak and move, how to feel and express emotions. We do all that with great efficiency. It only takes about the amount of energy needed to create a dim light from a light bulb. And we do all that while the average brain cell is inactive about 80 percent of the time.

“I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.” 

Psalm 139:14 (ESV)

I have been mulling over this information because of reading Virginia Prodan’s book, Saving My Assassin, which I reviewed a few years ago.

What stood out repeatedly was how many verses of scripture were memorized by the persecuted Christians of Romania under the repressive regime of Nicolae Ceausescu that ended in 1989. Bibles were forbidden. The period preceded our easy access to a Bible in unlimited numbers of translations via apps on our electronic devices. The body of Christ was under persecution and the Word was essential to sustain them. So, they hid the Word of God in their hearts where no one could steal it from them.

“I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”  

Psalm 119:11 (ESV)

David wrote those words. He “hid” the Word of God in his heart is how some translations read. David knew the value of scripture. He stored it, hid it, in his heart so that it would be available to him whenever he needed it. He valued it so highly that he was aware he might be robbed of it or lose it if it were something in a hard copy form, so he treasured it and placed it where no one could take it from him.

The Word doesn’t say David stored it in his memory. I think he knew what we know. Our memories can fail us.

Perhaps it said he placed it in his heart because he had so often read the Word that his heart had been molded by it, so the impression remained embedded on his soul.

I confess that I do not have vast amounts of scripture memorized, but I have many verses that have been woven into the fabric of my heart and soul much as words of love letters from my husband have been carried there.

Many of us are blessed with great freedom to own as many Bibles as we wish and read them wherever we desire, but if that was lost to us for some reason, what has been hidden in our hearts?

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Not so long ago there were cardinal virtues that were central to our lives, taught, passed down from generation to generation and  considered essential values to live by as individuals, communities and nations. The word, virtue, is rarely mentioned and few could define it or see many examples of it routinely lived out or set out as models. But they have been around as guiding principles since 430 BC, created by Greek philosopher, Plato.

Plato identified 4 cardinal virtues he considered necessary for a happy individual and a good society and the ideal state would be one with people with such virtues. The 4 he identified were prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice. We hear about  the word, justice, more often but the meaning has taken on more of a personal bias than a universal principle. The other words are likely as common as a horse drawn carriage in 2024.

How would you define those words?

The dictionary (hopefully not biased) defines the 4 as follows:

  Prudence – The quality of fact of being prudent, or wise in practical affairs, as by providing for the future; discretion; care for managing resources, economy; frugality

Temperance – Moderation or self-restraint in action, statement; self-control; habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion

   Fortitude – Mental and emotional strength in facing difficulty, adversity, danger, or temptation courageously

Justice – The quality of being just; righteous, equitableness, or moral rightness; lawfulness; the moral principle determining just conduct

Later various faiths or religions developed their own lists of versions of these. For centuries they were respected despite lack of perfecting them in the lives of individuals, cultures, or communities. There can be lists of reasons why but the source of most would be the sin nature residing in each one of us that balks at these virtues.

How can we flourish as individuals or societies without these?

“Our lives only genuinely improve when we grow in virtue. The virtue of patience improves our lives. It improves our relationships. Two patient people will always have a better relationship than two impatient people. The same is true for generosity, perseverance, compassion, humility and courage. Growing in virtue leads to the personal and spiritual expansion that are the hallmarks of human flourishing.” 

Matthew Kelly

The Christian faith speaks in multiple ways about virtues but are perhaps best summarized in the teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount found in the New Testament in Matthew 5-7. Those chapters lay out how we are to live and treat others and if we do, we develop character.

“Virtues are the building blocks of character. ‘Character is destiny,’ the Greek philosopher Heraclitus observed. This is true for a person, a marriage, a family, community, nation, and indeed, the whole human collective. Character is moral and ethical excellence, and it is built one virtue upon another, and the progress of the human race depends on it.” 

Matthew Kelly

When I was in grade school (Yes, a long time ago since I am 80.), my report card had two portions – one was for grades for the various subjects and the other was for my conduct (citizenship) with scores of satisfactory, unsatisfactory, or excellent. A look at this other side reflected evidence of the very virtues I have been writing about here. They were part of the public educational system not my Sunday School curriculum.

Somewhere along the line with emphasis on letting children develop their own identities and self-actualization, their own values, etc., these stopped being a part of that system that had served the individuals, communities, and nations well. Did it happen when prayer in public schools was outlawed or was it really the cause of that decision that eliminated citizenship?

Somehow we have come to value what we call progress as a setting aside things that had been central for a very long time. We stopped citizenship evaluations. We stopped teaching civics. We stopped teaching cursive writing and a long list of things known to much of western civilizations. What did it get us? Is that what caused the overall loss of a moral compass no matter what faith we have chosen to believe. 

We must have decided something on to the road to “success” was missing when identifying emotional intelligence (EQ) was lacking since it was a greater predictor of “success” than IQ.

“But when will we begin the epic conversation that our culture so desperately needs around Spiritual Intelligence.” 

Matthew Kelly

Individuals and societies have abandoned virtues as backward thinking and old-fashioned and I might ask, “How’s that working out?”  

It can seem overwhelming when we look at the negative domino effects of our individual and collective choices to make progress the goal in an ever-changing nebulous set of ideals.

If we recall these virtues and consider them of value, perhaps change begins with each one making a decision to look at their own citizenship or deportment and aligning these to those very virtues.

“The world is desperately in need of change. We are agreed on that. The real question is, what are you willing to do about it?” 

Matthew Kelly

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As I write this hundreds of individuals from all corners of the world are working hard and practicing their chosen sport in preparation for the upcoming Olympics. Most have spent years aiming for one goal, one target achievement to be qualified to compete in this worldwide arena. The target now will be succeeding to earn a medal signifying he or she is “the best.” That theme echoed in the film, The Boys in the Boat, about an unlikely eight-man crew team from Washington competing in the 1936 Olympics. 

Many of us are driven for success in some area of our lives. It may not be sports. It could be in the area of the arts, academic achievement, culinary arts, business acumen, or nearly any area you think of. To get there, targets are identified that must be hit on the right mark in order to move toward the ultimate goal. Some hit those targets while others miss the mark. We value success highly in the current age but why is it not more satisfying when we see reaching such benchmarks as progress whether it’s personal or for our community or society?

Perhaps the famous words of Winston Churchill give us a clue. In our striving for success, we forget that the mark we achieve sets the next target for success. So, success is not final. A new record sets a new target to break it and pushes for a new achievement. This points to why failure is not fatal if we have courage to continue and try again.

Even so, we regularly read about someone in some area who has reached what appears to be the pinnacle of success and yet it doesn’t seem to satisfy them in whatever they achieved. They purchase more, work longer, push harder and it seems like it is never enough to bring that illusive satisfaction they hoped for.

Are we addicted to the pursuit of success?

Success does not mean we flourish. Maybe chasing after it is not the right target. Could it be that flourishing is the better choice?  Should our decisions and choices be more wholistic versus measuring ourselves by one single criteria?

“Decision making is a powerful force in our lives. Our decisions quite literally shape our lives. We make our future with our choices.” 

Matthew Kelly

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But changing our perspective on success isn’t looking at happiness as the better choice. Happiness is grand but it comes and goes and is dependent on too many variables to be satisfying for any great length of time.

What if we were to make decisions and choices that would result in our lives flourishing? What would that look like? 

Flourishing means developing in a healthy and vigorous way. We can see examples in places like our gardens and in watching children who thrive. And guess what? When we flourish, our lives have meaning and ultimately result in success versus starting with success as the primary goal. Success is the byproduct of a life that is flourishing and filled with meaning. Without that, the number of medals and trophies, degrees, and bank accounts never are enough to satisfy our souls. Plus, flourishing has a ripple effect.

“Determining what will cause society to flourish begins with what causes an individual human being to flourish.” 

Matthew Kelly

Perhaps our failure when we look at the ills in society can be better diagnosed by starting at that point. It isn’t about more programs or policies which someone or some entity designs for us. It begins with giving space to the quest for what provides meaning for our life and the open doors to pursue those things. Then we can get off the merry-go-round of simply working hard for some definition of success or progress that we think matters or society sets for us.  Then we discover we can more likely reach those things as a byproduct of flourishing.

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If this is true then the words of Laurens van der Post are sound wisdom:

“There is ultimately only one thing that makes humanity deeply and profoundly bitter, and that is to have thrust upon them a life without meaning. There is nothing wrong in searching for happiness. But of far more comfort to the soul is something greater than happiness or unhappiness, and that is meaning. Because meaning transfigures all. Once what you are doing has meaning for you, it is irrelevant whether you’re happy or unhappy. You are content.”

Laurens van der Post

This moment is the perfect time to reflect on what has meaning for you and whether or not you are doing it so your life can flourish and you can know contentment.

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One of the things most of us hope for when we are part of a church body is the sense of community, of belonging, or of being in fellowship one with another.

When I am speaking of fellowship, I am not really speaking of getting together over food and fun even though that may often happen. I am speaking more about a community bound together in mutual support, companionship, and friendship stemming from shared values and beliefs.

Because life on this earth is messy, experiencing this type of fellowship can often include some ruts or rocks along the way since we all continue to bear the taint of our sin natures even though redeemed. I think we all can struggle with that from time to time, or one degree to another.

What makes this fellowship and community so difficult?

I am sure we can all come up with lists or have some opinions about it, but as I have been reading in my time with the Lord today, I think He points us back to the “big rock” principle He lays down for us.

How do I love my brother or sister, my neighbor?

At the outset, I think none of us do this as well as we would like or might even pride ourselves on doing. I certainly don’t! Yet repeatedly from Old Testament to New Testament each of us is called to do so.

One place I bumped into it today was in Leviticus 19:17:

“You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor lest you incur sin because of him.”

Leviticus 19:17 (ESV)

I can quickly say that I don’t hate someone, but as I delve more deeply into the principles under the verse, I discover it includes a responsibility to God to respect my brother or sister. That adds a dimension I may not first think about when reading a verse such as this.

Respecting someone means having a feeling of deep admiration for someone, holding that person in regard or esteem, acting with deference toward or in civility with the person. This sounds a lot like godly love to me.

That fits with the two commandments upon which everything else depends on first loving God and then loving our neighbor. We all “know” that. Loving God first is what bends our hearts toward loving our neighbor. Only when we do the first can we hope to attempt the second since it is a reflex to the reality of loving God.

I feel like it can be easy to get stuck because even when we seek to put self to death, it keeps sticking its head up out of the ground repeatedly. That keeps me from loving my brother or sister very well, but what I might fail to recognize is that I might not love God or be in rich fellowship with Him. If that has slipped, then I will mess up in loving anyone else because it will invariably be about me in some way or another.

I think these are some of the sticking points that are a hard part of fellowship, but there is something else. When things get messy for whatever reason and our hearts cause our actions and motives to be less than loving, too often someone does not come alongside us in respect and love to help us recognize what is hindering fellowship with God or others.

That requires a lot more from us. It is easier to be judgmental, to cut off the person, to confront without love, or to become bitter. Because that is the case and this community of believers may have more than just one or two of us during this sort of challenge, fellowship is hard.

We will hurt each other. That’s a given even though it is generally not intentional. Prayerfully, we will seek to forgive in the midst of our own hurt or pain.

We demonstrate how well we love when we bump into Ephesians 4:15:

“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ”

Ephesians 4:15 (ESV)

Most of us know that verse but living it out is another story. Think about it. It means I speak the truth versus my opinion or perspective. I share my honest feeling as a feeling, but not as a fact. It also means I share whatever I am sharing in love while not diminishing the issue.

It is also how I help myself and others grow up in Him and in maturity by being open to them when they (out of love) seek to help me not fail or do poorly. It also means I face my fear and gain courage to speak to them in that way, not from a one up position but from an equally level position.

We need more lessons and practice in loving no matter what our age or season of life, no matter what our position or gender.

If we submit to Him and allow His love to permeate our own hearts, I think fellowship will become less difficult and the community will look more like Him.

I love what C.S. Lewis says in Mere Christianity:

 “God can show Himself as He really is only to real men. And that means not simply to men who are individually good, but to men who are united in a body, loving one another, helping one another, showing Him to one another. For that is what God meant humanity to be like; like players in one band, or organs in one body. Consequently, the one really adequate instrument for learning about God, is the whole Christian community, waiting on Him together.”

C.S. Lewis

Most of us are familiar with the Aesop’s Fable 226 known to us as The Tortoise and the Hare. The hare in the fable makes fun of the tortoise for being so slow. In response to the taunts the tortoise challenges the hare to a race. The hare thinks this is the funniest thing ever since there is no way that a slow-moving tortoise can ever win a race against a hare. So, the hare accepts with no question he will win.

The hare takes off like a shot and soon disappears ahead of the slow-moving tortoise but decides he has plenty of time to grab a nap along the route. While he snoozes, the tortoise reaches and passes the hare. When the hare awakens and sees the tortoise is ahead of him, he leaps up and dashes for the finish line. It is too late, and the tortoise wins that race.

We all know the moral of this story – you can be more successful by doing things slowly and steadily than by acting quickly and carelessly. Of course, we can all recall times when we have been racing to finish a project or do something else only to discover in our horror that we missed a key component, and our efforts fail.

The problem for us can sometimes be that we live life all the time at the pace of the hare. Our days quickly go from one thing on our agenda to another with very little (if any) gap time left in between. We may have once used planners to help us track it all. Now most of us use our phones, tablets, and Siri to keep us on that schedule. We may tell ourselves that tomorrow or next week will be different but often the pace continues much the same and research points to this as a cause of erosion to our health on every level.

Much of what we do are good things but doing them all is not good for us.

We can even be judgmental about others who are seeming to laze through life as we look at when we can escape to the beach for a vacation to recoup from our own hectic pace. We start to go through life on automatic and may not even recognize the things we are missing along the way – the crocuses that pop up in our lawn that we planted years ago, the color of the sky just before the sun dips below the horizon, the expression on the face of a family member or friend, the nudge from the Holy Spirit to call that person that comes to mind, and so many other things as well. And even the pandemic did not slow everyone down and those who were required to slow their pace were often at a loss about what to do now or how to live life.

Such a pace erodes our quietness before the Lord and mutes the Holy Spirit’s voice and the guidance He offers.

By now you may have determined that is not what you are like or you may feel defensive because it is stuff for your kids, your church, or any number of other good and important causes. I know both of those reactions because I have had them as well at different times. I thought the years I was teaching full-time while a housewife and mom while going to graduate school was bad and when that pace finished things would finally slow down, but I changed careers and life never did slow down and yet it wasn’t life that was setting the pace, I was.

Little by little I began to take back my life and bring my busy life (I hated to have someone tell me that I was so busy.) into subjection so that it was rich with good things but not a pace that was robbing me of the joy of living or noticing life around me. As I did there was evidence in my physical life of the benefits of the change – I started sleeping better, weight was not as much of an issue because I was eating better and cortisol levels were not as high due to less stress, and I had serendipitous moments that made my heart smile.

I had one of those serendipitous moments a year or so ago that still makes my heart smile even more than usual. It was as if the Lord saw a perfect opportunity to have a teaching moment and I was the pupil. And it all happened on a morning when I decided to drive to my favorite walking path to get in some good exercise before digging into the tasks for the day. As I pulled my car into the parking area and turned off the key I caught a glimpse of an older woman walking slowly with a walker toward where two portions of the trail come together. It was only a glimpse and I didn’t think much about it as I got out of the car, retied my shoes, and took a sip of water from my water bottle. My mind was elsewhere.

I started out slowly but quickly got up to peak speed to get the best cardio from the walk. In doing so I became aware of that the woman with the walker and she was now a bit ahead of me on the path. I noticed and realized I would soon pass her and hoped to move ahead of another small group of walkers as well, but the Lord had a different plan. As I approached the woman with the walker, I had the distinct impression I was to tell her that she was doing a great job. It was clear the movement was painful for her and that might be encouraging so as I reached the point at her side I said, “Great job!” She looked at me and smiled and said she needed that encouragement and right then the Holy Spirit made clear that I was not to rush along at the good pace because this woman was part of his plan for my day, and I was part of hers.

As I stopped and listened, the women shared that she was only allowed to walk 20 minutes on orders from her physical therapist, so she set a timer for 10 minutes one way and knew it was a pace of the same length back. A complete hip replacement was ahead of her in about a month, but she was also recovering from the most recent of a series of back surgeries that also kept her in pain. She lived in another county and was now staying with relatives so she could be on one floor and near the hospital and therapy sessions. No question now that I knew I was just to listen. As she continued to talk, she mentioned how much she talked with God about all this, and I shared my husband had pain with back issues as well. At that point she asked my first name and his and said she would be praying for us and shared her own first name.

We spent about 10 minutes talking – enough so that she was bending her leg with the bad hip and the timer on her phone was going off. I told her that I didn’t want her pain to get worse by standing there and she brushed it aside and said she would head back in a moment. She thanked me for listening and confirmed my first name again. I told her I would be praying for her and she said she would be praying for me.

If I had been operating as a hare, I can assure you that I would not have heard the gentle whisper to stop or I would have justified why I needed to keep on my own schedule. The lesson was clear and the rest of the walk my heart was smiling and my spirit was soaring as I prayed for Barb – a stranger the Lord wanted me to notice on that day.

What I wonder is how many times I have been the hare and missed what the Lord wanted me to notice or be. After all, we never see Him rushing as we read about his ministry on earth. He noticed people and things along the way – the fig tree, a man up in a tree, and more. I want to be more like that!

“Sometimes the nothing moments are everything.”

Kristy Woodson Harvey in Under the Southern Sky