WARNING--Serious Thought Under Attack!

What we suffer from today is not just an information explosion, but a conflagration! "Google," for all the wonder it offers, can simply overwhelm the user. There is seemingly no end to all the legitimate trails down which we may head in an effort to tap just about any subject. But that is part of our problem isn't it? We may easily amass far more than we can reasonably comprehend. And we end up sacrificing depth of meaning on the altar of endless searching. 

Indeed, how fragile has become serious thought. How quickly does it succumb to "sound bite" trivia or classroom banter. We may even read something substantial only to find it dissipate into the mist of footnote qualification. Qualification is important, but more critically, we must ask, "Did it mean anything to us?" We eventually lose the ability to recognize the truly significant. What good were truth were it not to impact us? In this information age, granted we see more but it seems our eyes of discernment have grown fuzzy, and our minds become anesthetized to truth's implications. 

The believer has a built-in spiritual GPS system, namely, the Spirit who guides them into all truth (John 16:13). Believers rely on the Spirit to give them, as it were, "tunnel-vision" for the vital. Further, Proverbs teaches that "the upright gives thought to his ways" (21:29b). In other words, he takes what he hears and ponders it's meaning in order to put it into practice. "He does not say, What would I do? What have I a mind to? and that will I have; but, What should I do? What does God require of me? What is duty? What is prudence? What is for edification?" (Matthew Henry). It is easy to take what one hears and downgrade it to the arena of opinion, thus, in effect nullifying any responsibility to interact with the truth. Often Jesus would close out his teachings with a call to serious consideration, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

LAND! PLEASE LAND!

I fear that not only I, but many today will hunt down so many web sites that we will be like a plane in a holding pattern awaiting a place to land. If we don't take care, we'll run out of fuel and plummet to earth. Only God has perfect knowledge and the perfect ability to sort it out immediately. Everyone else must be selective!

ADVISE?

1. Be quiet. Don't feel as though you have to have radio or TV running all the time. Being "still" is the prescriptive way God gives us so that we may "know that He is God" (Ps. 46:10).

2. Read Scripture at a slower pace, taking time to pause, ponder and reflect on what it means. In other words, meditate.

3. Seek out deeper meaning, for God is a great God. The old railroad warning sign applies here: WATCH, LOOK, AND LISTEN!

4. In short, discipline yourself to read carefully. There are those who rightly advise us not to make a habit of reading many books superficially, but fewer books deeply.