The Silence of Eli

Watched the Book of Eli yesterday, I enjoyed it tremendously.  I tend to enjoy the post apocalyptic movies when people are trying to figure out how to rebound from disaster.  In this movie faith is the central point where Eli (Denzel Washington) works to live out his purpose.  His faith comes from a calling he received from God, his ability to memorize God’s word and surround himself with silence.  Made me a little jealous because I haven’t been able to memorize the whole bible, haven’t really memorized much of it, probably should considering it’s God’s word.  I would love to be able to share that gift with my students, but how do you start?

 I like to think it’s as simple as just opening the Bible and reviewing it and reviewing it.  I know my problem is the amount of noise I surround myself with.  As I write this blog I have the television on in the background, nothing inspiring just an infomercial.  With all the noise it’s easy to ignore God’s voice, it’s easy to not hear His words of love and His guidance.  And even when we pray we don’t listen for the quiet still voice, we don’t find a quiet room.
I think reading scripture and then memorizing it, is like any form of prayer, to really embrace it we need less noise.  The habit behind the habit of memorizing scripture is finding and then embracing the silence.  It can be a little uncomfortable, but then again that makes sense.  Breaking the ice in any conversation, even with God, can be a little uncomfortable.   Again I don’t know how we can relay this idea to students, all I know is we have to help them try.  How can we expect them to hear anything, when all we can hear is noise?