sustain:if:able kiwi

be quiet, i’m listening to the pictures OR how do you read Harry Potter’s Deathly Hallows

Every fortnight I do Viewpoint, a 4 minute radio slot. This morning I did a piece reflecting on the hype surrounding Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which caused me to ask the question; How do we read (whether Harry Potter or the Bible)? I’m quite pleased with it, so I thought I’d put it on the blog for my e-world listeners.

Good morning listeners. In case you missed it, Saturday was the biggest one-day sale of any book in history.

I’m talking of course, about the worldwide launch of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the 7th, and the final installation in the Harry Potter saga.

I was at my local shopping mall on Saturday trying to buy a birthday present for a friends birthday and got to see all the hype, all the Whitcoulls shop assistants dressed up and excited children grasping brand new copies and hurrying off home to start reading.

On Monday a local newspaper carried an interview with one young fan, who after nine hours of solid reading, had finished the 734 pages. The fan was feeling mixed emotions. “It was weird finishing it” she said, “and now there is nothing more to look forward to.”

It brought to mind a story told to me by a colleague, retired Baptist pastor Ken McCormack.

His story of driving through Wellington with his family. Back seat are his children. 2 boys. 1 girl.

2 boys are simply being boys. Noisy. Playful. Radio is on and Ken’s daughter is getting more and more agitated.

Eventually she bursts out: “Be quiet.” “Be quiet,” she orders the noisy boys, “I’m listening to the pictures.”

I’m listening to the words on the radio, and the words are forming pictures in my mind. And in order to listen to the pictures, I need quiet.

A reminder to us that reading is a skill. And that it takes time and effort in order to listen to the pictures.

Which takes me to the Bible. The prophet Ezekiel, who was given a very bizarre set of instructions. Told by God “to eat this book.”

I find it hard to swallow the idea of God literally wanting prophet Ezekiel, or me,
to literally chew my way through the good old NIV Bible.

I can’t imagine literally chomping my way through the pages of Ezekiel or Leviticus. But I do understand God telling Ezekiel to eat this book in terms of the skills of reading. The need to be quiet, to take the time, and space, to let the words form pictures in our minds.

I call this slow eating.

So Saturday’s biggest one-day sale of any book in history has got me asking the question. How do we read? How do we read the Bible? As fast food? Rushing off to consume 734 pages in 9 hours?

Or are we going to practise slow eating? Taking time to be quiet, and listen to the pictures. That’s my viewpoint.