Wendell Berry gives us a little gem about the meaning of the word ‘information’:
‘Information,’ which once meant that which forms or fashions from within, now means merely ‘data.’ However organized this data may be, it is not shapely or formal or in the true sense in-forming. It is not present where it is needed; if you have to ‘access’ it, you don’t have it. Whereas knowledge moves and forms acts, information is inert. You cannot imagine a debater or a quarterback or a musician performing by ‘accessing information.’ A computer chock full of such information is no more admirable than a head or a book chock full of it.
– Another Turn of the Crank, p. 96
Getting knowledge, storing and accessing data, simply won’t do it. There is information in the form of data, and there is information that truly forms a person inwardly. Which are you primarily seeking after?
What we often do not realize is that the entertainment culture around us is often what is truly informing us. Movies are catechisms, stories are catechisms, they are forming our impulses, shaping the way that we look at the world.
While this is the case, in school we often find ourselves simply storing and regurgitating data. This might be a good thing when it comes to bad schools, but it’s not a good thing in general. The ability to regurgitate data does not equate to true knowledge.
The Bible, and the book of Proverbs, in particular, calls us to seek both knowledge and wisdom. Both belong to God: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” (Rom. 11:33). God is rich in knowledge. He has all the data. He knows all the facts. He is omniscient. But he is also rich in wisdom. He is able to take those facts and form them into a coherent whole. He can make sense of the facts in the most practical details.
Being truly informed is to have knowledge and wisdom come together in such a way that they shape you from the inside. And since Christ is the Word (the Logos), the Reason, the Logic of God and the Wisdom of God, the One who makes it all make sense in the nuts and bolts of existence, you will never be informed until He dwells in you. You might be a data collector, and even a data regurgitator. You might take on the shape of your favorite pop star or fictional series, but you will never know the glory of being truly formed from within toward God – Christ in you, the hope of glory.
- Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me (John 15:4).
Yes!! Thank you!