Less Information, More Wisdom

Does not wisdom call,
    and does not understanding raise her voice?
 On the heights, beside the way,
    at the crossroads she takes her stand;
 beside the gates in front of the town,
    at the entrance of the portals she cries out:
 “To you, O people, I call,
    and my cry is to all that live.
 O simple ones, learn prudence;
    acquire intelligence, you who lack it.
 Hear, for I will speak noble things,
    and from my lips will come what is right;
 for my mouth will utter truth...

                                            Proverbs 8:1-7a

wisdom

 

the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the quality of being wise.

 

the body of knowledge and principles that develops within a specified society or period.

 
When I began this Lion Lamb blog more than a decade ago it was on the prompting of a young parishioner. No doubt he has gone elsewhere in terms of social media but I have stayed with it through the years. I have done so, in no small part, to help me make sense of the wave of information which washes over all of us from so many sources. When I began blogging Facebook was still associated with college students and Twitter wasn't even a virtual twinkle in anyone's eye. I couldn't have imagined that newspapers would disappear in droves nor that the evening television news would become stale because stories break through the smart phone I carry with me all the time but which didn't exist in 2006.


I have come to realize that I have continued to blog as a form of self expression and as a way of processing the tsunami of information now available to us at any time of the day or night, 365 days of the year. While I may have greater and greater access to that info (could we possibly be stuffed with any more?) I don't feel any wiser. In fact, it is quite the opposite. My attention span has declined, I can easily be side-tracked by trivia, and it can be a challenge to step away from the culture of rage, even as a bystander.

As we enter into 2018 I would like to endeavour to deepen my wisdom, which will likely mean limiting the amount of unfiltered information which bombards me. I plan to intentionally step away from my not-as-smart-as-it-seems phone more, so that it is my servant rather than my master.  

I will read more of the novels stacked all around me, and pursue deeper thoughts through the biographies of those who introduced us to new ways of thinking and being in the world. I'll read the bible more, just for the sake of doing so, after so many years of reading for my vocation as a minister of the gospel. And I'll "read" the natural world with greater purpose because I almost always find wisdom and centredness there.

Can I do this? I hope so, God being my helper.

Thoughts? Wisdom?