You Might Want to Stay Ignorant

Inquiring Mind, or Wise Heart:

"Inquiring Minds Want to Know." A few years back that was the advertising slogan for a tabloid newspaper. It is also an accurate observation. It is healthy to want to know, to grow in understanding, and to gain a better command of the world around us and how it works. In the Western world, we speak of knowledge as being power. Indeed in this digital age, some of the most successful businesses deal in nothing but information, knowledge, data. Those who can successfully tap into that natural human tendency to quest to know more, find that knowledge is wealth. Sometimes, though, knowledge isn't a good thing. I've seen situations when: Knowledge is pain. Knowledge is corrupting. Knowledge is guilt. or, Knowledge is maddening. Some people-groups tend to live with a view of knowledge that is far different than mine, as a senior American. They aren't nearly as open, and they respect the closed-ness of others. Perhaps in those cultures, inquiring minds still want to know, but I see a realization there that says, "Wise hearts care enough to leave it alone. Many of us are so connected that our lives are like a reality TV show, where cameras are on us 24/7. We don't eat without posting a picture of our food. Every move we make leaves a digital footprint and often a tweeted prediction. The most intimate details of life are dumped out before millions like breadcrumbs thrown to pigeons in a park. On the other end of those feeds are those who become annoyed, even indignant, when they aren't fed. Some of us are old enough to remember when people would make major trips without ever calling back home. My wife and I carried out a courtship largely through the US Postal Service. I have noticed that as we have more, cheaper, and faster means of passing on information that the demand--and I mean that in its most demanding sense--to know more has increased. "Minds addicted to knowledge demand to know," and they will make you pay if you don't feed them. I'm not suggesting that you throw your iPhone away, or cancel your Twitter account. I am suggesting that perhaps we ought to think more and know less. The book of Proverbs speaks of discretion, the quality of behaving or speaking in such a way as to avoid causing offense or revealing private information. In 1:4 discretion--the ability to make proper decisions--is a goal of the book. Discretion guards a person (2:11). 11:12 speaks of an aspect of discretion, " a man of understanding keeps silent." (See also 11:22) Instead of being so eager to know the latest, let's try to understand what we already know. Let's create some space between the deed done, or the word said, and its announcement to the world. Let's exercise some discretion. Let's emphasize wisdom in our hearts. It's STTA.

I want to know more:

A couple of events, totally unrelated have been parked side by side in the parking lot of my mind.  One is the birth of Christ, the other is the tragic death of a young friend.  Why would two events, seperated by two millennia, and about as opposite as two happenings can be separated by just a white line one graypavement that passes for my brain?

Beside the fact that my friend died near Christmas, surrounding both events I can hear cries for more information.  It is said that nature abhors a vacuum.  Make a container strong enough, give it a sufficient seal, and keep little boys with screw-drivers away, and a near vacuum can be maintained in the world of nature.  It is much more difficult in the realm of ideas.  Luke 2:1-7 gives the story of Christ's birth.  In the translation I read, one-hundred-forty words.  How can such a momentous event be recorded so sparsely?  In the case of my friend's death little is known.  In Luke's case, since his primary source is the third person of Trinity, everything is known.

Why are we not told the precise location of the Messiah's birth?  

Just why was their no room?

How many shepherds came?

Were animals present?

 What song did the little drummer boy play?

Etc, etc. etc.?

One can hear the air of information, so-called, rushing in.  For hundreds of years artists, writers, preachers, Sunday School program directors, and others have filled the blanks with speculation, conjecture, culturally incorrect conclusions, and fancy.  

In the case of my friend, at least for now, I have to come to peace with the information that I have.  With the birth of my Savior I conclude that I have been given what I need to know.  The Holy Spirit's plan was not to give me a complete guide to setting up a historically accurate creche.  It is, in the words of the angel, to tell me there is "good news of great joy . . .  there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."  (Luke 2:10-11)

 

That is enough!

 

With a wish for the best of Christmases,

it's Something To Think About,

from the Covington Bible Church.

  

 

This will be my first Christmas without my mom.  Mom made hundreds of  little angels, like the one on the left.  They are literally around the world.  I don't have any handwork for you, but on our website, covingtonbblechurch.com, you can find recordings of messages, including some recent messages on thanksgiving, and there is a lot of information about the One Who came to earth to be our Savior,covingtonbiblechurch.com.  Click on "Life's most important question."