“The time is surely coming,” says the Sovereign Lord,The Lord said there would come a time when there was not a famine of food, but of knowledge. There would come a time when people would be dying from knowledge malnutrition more than anything else.
“when I will send a famine on the land—
not a famine of bread or water
but of hearing the words of the Lord.
People will stagger from sea to sea
and wander from border to border[g]
searching for the word of the Lord,
but they will not find it.
Beautiful girls and strong young men
will grow faint in that day,
thirsting for the Lord’s word. (Amos 8:11-13)
And it seems to be now. But in such an odd way.
We have an overflow of knowledge today. With the advent of Google, we can find out just about anything with one click on our computers. In the past few days, according to my Google link, I have found out a number of things. Definitions of words, biographies of people and of rock bands, cake recipes, Christmas jazz stations, what kind of dog a corgi is, an English to Klingon dictionary, a Greek interlinear Bible, the words and chords to “Me and Bobby McGee,”
I have always had a fascination with knowledge and the computer is a way to almost glut that desire to know more.
But yet, with all the knowing more, we really know less. Things are so easily attainable that we lose the perspective that comes from study. Reading a book and thinking about it brings wisdom. Finding a quote brings just knowledge. Disciplined study brings wisdom, scattergun Googling brings knowledge. That kind of knowledge is great for parties where you are looking for something to talk about, but in general, it is worthless.
We are in an age of wisdom famine. People seem to have no perspective on things, no ability to think things through. We are an impulse society, and impulsive people are never happy nor are they well balanced.
And the knowledge we have is mostly trivial. Looking at the Google bar and what I have looked for on the computer, I see that it is mostly nothing, just trivial things. The idea of sitting with a good book and just reading is almost alien. And it affects me. I want to know something and I want to know it now. I finally have something that can give me instant information. In fact, I get irritated at having to read all the posts on the first page of the Google search just to find my scrap of information.
It breeds impatience, and wisdom can only come through patience.
And we can only come to God through patience and learning to listen to him and know him. He is not Googleable. You cannot know him quickly, nor can you know him thoroughly without a lot of time spent in looking for him and listening to him.
Without him? We grow faint, no matter how well off we may be otherwise.
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