I confess - I am addicted.
Yes, to coffee, but to something possibly more harmful.
You see, I am an "information addict."
I love learning, whether through a book or in a class. Interesting facts and statistics give me a rush. Yes, you may call me a "news junkie," though news here is harder to access.
Put me near someone new and I will pepper them with questions about who they are, what they do, etc., until I have to apologize for asking so many.
I am naturally
I thirst for knowledge. Knowledge that will benefit me and which I can share with others.
Why and how could such an addiction be harmful, you ask?
What may be detrimental is what I choose to do or not do with the information, knowledge, and skills I acquire.
Twice this week I have heard the parable of the wise and foolish builders from Matthew 7:24-27.
Jesus told about a "wise" man who built his house on a rock, and when the ferocious storms came, his house remained erect.
Then he spoke of the "foolish" man who built his house on the sand, and when the wind, rain and waves lambasted his shelter, it collapsed "with a mighty crash."
What made one man wise and the other foolish? What do their building foundations really represent?
Jesus said the "wise" man heard Jesus' teachings and followed it. The foolish man also heard Jesus' teachings, but he did not follow or obey them.
Both men heard Jesus' teachings and received the same information. But what they did or didn't do with what they received produced drastically different results in their lives.
"True wisdom consists in getting the building of our salvation completed:
to this end we must build on the Rock, Christ Jesus, and make the
building firm, by keeping close to the maxims of his Gospel, and having
our tempers and lives conformed to its word and spirit; and when, in
order to this, we lean on nothing but the grace of Christ, we then build
upon a solid rock." - Clarke's Commentary on the Bible
"This parable teaches us to hear and do the sayings of the Lord Jesus:
some may seem hard to flesh and blood, but they must be done. Christ is
laid for a foundation, and every thing besides Christ is sand. Some
build their hopes upon worldly prosperity; others upon an outward
profession of religion. Upon these they venture; but they are all sand,
too weak to bear such a fabric as our hopes of heaven. There is a storm
coming that will try every man's work." - Matthew Henry
The more I learn, acquire and gain, the greater the responsibility to apply, use, implement what I have learned, acquired and gained.
If I am all about gaining information and knowledge, but not putting it into action, I enter into dangerous territory.
Just a few chapters later, Jesus cautioned:
"When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and
when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required." (Luke 12:48b)
Is my addiction leading to positive action?
We have a lot in common, considering I ain't a young 'un and still am buried in wanting to understand and learn and ask questions. I HAVE become very assertive about what I am convinced is not OK... based on Scripture or based on the possible results that will not destroy other elements or groups of people. In our overwhelmingly online info, we have much more on our plates, day by day, instant by instant, than people in other centuries ever had to deal with.
ReplyDeleteOne bit of info I dug out of a book a few years ago, and need to find the details for you, says that when we read a New York newspaper of one day, it has more info to read and learn than someone would have in their whole life in the 1600s. We are just filled with more and more all the time. Sometimes good and a blessing; sometimes scary.
Wrote too much, too long, possibly, but you hit my heart and mind. Struggle and deal with the same stuff.
YEP!! HE is our only Rock. No one and nothing else counts at all. Need to keep that in mind.
Thanks as always for the comment, Joanne! Wow, it is pretty incredible to think about the amount of information we take in daily, compared to those of a couple of hundred years ago. I guess then it is all the more important to have our Biblical "filters" on and to make sure we are using what we receive in a wise way.
ReplyDeleteBlessings!
uh-oh. me, too.
ReplyDelete