TGIF
Miss Kitty loves her “treats”.
When she first adopted us I would sprinkle a few on top of her food.
Now, unless her food is covered in treats she won’t eat.
In fact, she often eats the treats and leaves the food behind.
She thinks shes being fed.
She thinks she’s being nourished.
She thinks she’s full when she’s done.
She is taking in a quantity of food of little or no quality.
In reality, she is at risk of malnutrition and sickness.
In this, she is a picture to me of our culture and our churches.
We take in more information than ever, most of it of questionable value.
We do our theology by Google and Wikipedia.
We craft our political opinions by soundbite and website.
We think we’re being fed.
We think ourselves wise.
We demand to have a voice and opinion, even if it’s ill informed.
We are angry and divided and think each other the problem.
We think ourselves full, but full of what?
We are malnourished by lack of wisdom and our souls are growing as sick as if there were a famine of it.
I’m cutting off Miss Kitty’s treats and putting her on a healthy diet.
When she’s healthier, we can do treats again…in moderation.
For the rest of us, I suggest cutting the cable and buying a book.
Maybe several…
Wisdom takes time…if wisdom still matters.
Make your own application…
A very good TGIF.
Thank you, Xenia!
A Strong’s Concordance, Olive Tree or e-sword have done wonders for me being informed.
Still saves my sanity, life, family and those I minister to on a regular basis.
When I picked up those tools to figure out what the Bible said about the “end times” (looking up “rapture,” “temple,” “antichrist(s),” “tribulation” and more), I saw everything differently than the websites I’d read or books I’d been handed.
My wife, in changing channels, saw a certain Texan preaching, with his complicated charts. Which virtually every time we passed him on that channel was his topic du jour. She commented, “Once you start preaching on the end times (pin the tail in the antichrist etc), everything else in the Bible seems boring, so he stays on that.”
Treats with no real meal. Or worse.
What if God really did take the treats away? I think of our homes and our possessions and the things we so take for granted. What if the U.S. economy collapsed? It causes me great anxiety to think of these things until I remember to …Consider the lilies. He’s promised to give us what we need. We may have a very different idea as to what we need, but He knows. And that brings comfort to a panicky soul.
The cats I used to live with would normally eat whatever they were given, in a hurry, as if it would disappear in a minute.
Things in print are not necessarily better than those online. Usually something in print has been thought through more and edited well. Much stuff on the web is discussion of current stuff rather than digging deep into a topic. Otoh publishing things online signifies wanting to get it to people freely while print publishing is done with an eye to making money.
All the really good stuff is in the public domain and free to read online.