Information Overload: One Day at a Time

Suffice it to it to say- we live in the IO age... Information Overload. Anyone can be a newsmaker and idea shaker through social media sites, blogs, even creating custom websites. We share our ideas, philosophies, and agendas in a myriad of avenues- leaving many conventional methods in the dust. If we are unsure of something, if we have a burning question that just popped into our heads, or (we do this best) if we are multitasking-- at the push of a button Siri or some other form of personal device assistance is at our beck and call and quickly conjures up the needed information or completes the same task we would do ourselves. Convenient? Most of the time. Has it changed our dynamic in the way we think about information and our expectations in getting it?- Absolutely!! There is very little in the world today that we can't find the answer to in mere minutes...seconds. Yes- some problems call for higher level questioning, debating, thinking through, hashing out plans for, etc. but as we do these things- where are we collecting our data from? Where do we go to have our questions answered? Almost every public service, business, organization, and person has their information on the Internet in some form or another. Will you have to dig? Occasionally. Will you still be able to find, at the very least, bits and pieces of information? Guaranteed. To further illustrate this, I will tell you my favorite online bookmarking site is Diigo. With Diigo, I can catalog (save) any webpage I find for further use. In the "old" days we would simply mark a site in our "favorites" but now bookmarking pages has become more sophisticated as the need for organizing the information available to us grows. With Diigo I'm able to categorize the pages I save, annotate them, make notes about them, share them with others, and I can do this without worrying about which device I'm on at the time- smartphone, iPad, tablet, iPod... Diigo is cloud-based so all of my pages that have been saved can be pulled up for perusing at any time, on any device- that's the point of Diigo. We even have a word for the art of sifting through and saving all of this information- curating. Curator jobs are popping up all over the web for many online businesses dealing with disseminating information to its followers. Yes- we all now have our very on followers...but we will save that for another post. 

For tech savvy people, reading the paragraphs above does little in piquing interest or curiosity- it contains terms and information familiar to them. It also doesn't scare them- for they know all of this already. They live it. It's the norm. For people who only read this blog because they know me personally and read out of respect, or for those of you who don't even understand what this "blog" thing is all about and you're simply reading what is written because someone shared it with you- you may not have understood everything (or anything) of what I just said... and that's ok.

My entire point is that when Jesus had a pressing point He needed to know more about, or the disciples suddenly had an urgent question they needed an answer to immediately, or the shepherds were now lost in the country side with a flock of sheep after trying to find the stray- there was no Siri, no GPS, no Google. There was God Almighty. And..... if I'm being brutally honest- that simply is not enough for many of us in today's time. Simply put- we want we expect answers immediately, now, pronto. We expect the information we want answers to, to already be accessible yesterday.

But God doesn't work that way. 

Does He answer our prayers, our questions, or need to know now moments? Absolutely! Every time. Is it always in the human timeframe? Nope. But He is more powerful than Siri or Google or any super computer that man could possibly build. He knows more information than we can even begin to fathom. He can tell me the very number of hairs I have on my head right this very minute- and be 100% accurate. He knows every thought, every tear, every fear, every sin, every concern, every dark secret, every lie, every joy. He knows them all- the good, the bad, and even the ugly. He makes our information overload seem, well, miniscule. 

My point is that often we don't realize the power that quality time with God can bring. We don't connect that, while His means and ways of giving us the exact information/answers/big-picture-data we feel we need instantly are different than what we have morphed into expecting thanks to technologies available to us, He supplies these things regularly, daily, and more consistently than any computer or media source. And-- here's the kicker-- He's ALWAYS right. He's ALWAYS thorough. He's ALWAYS faithful. And-- this is my favorite-- He always gives us what we need to know when we need to know it. 

My need-to-know, Big Picture thinking if definitely a character flaw. Is that a bad thing? Umm... depends on who you ask, but I don't think it is. It's just how God made me. But the IO age I live in doesn't help. It sometimes feeds my crazy need-to-know-now binges. I notice this most when I'm spending quite time with the Lord in the mornings. The mornings are the worst! My time with the Lord starts out slow and steady and then my brain will usually kick into overdrive with a stray thought, a random prayer request that makes me think of something else, an item needed to be done and if I don't write it down I will forget, ... You get the picture. I have even found myself putting down my Bible or journal to grab my phone so I can Google something, write myself a reminder, or look at the calendar. 

Before you judge- think about your own life. We're all deficient in various areas of our lives. We all have flaws in our own prayer lives. We all have distractions in the form of important things- whatever those things may be for you. Maybe you aren't distracted as I sometimes am (very impressive, by the way!!!!) but maybe you doubt God's answers you have longingly prayed for or doubt that He hears you sometimes. Maybe you reject the very tools God has given you to take on a new role or craft out of fear. 

Overload of information, fear, distractions, our own expectations that we will have the answers to life's questions instantly-- whatever the hinderance; whichever way God created you personally-- it's ok. Is it messy? Yep. Inconsistent at times? Yes. Even unhealthy? Can be. But it's ok. Realizing that I expect answers NOW and knowing that I'm geared to want the big-picture ahead of time is half the battle. My goal is to take it one day (literally) at a time and trust that if I give God my undivided attention in the morning (if you're thinking you don't have any free time for this- note: I didn't say free time. You get dressed, right? Put on make-up? Brush your teeth? If so, then use that time, those moments) to focus on God being in charge of your day and resting (yep- I picture myself resting because during the week I feel like a crazy person and some would argue I AM a crazy person) in His knowledge, His will for the day, His answers in His time. 

Am I always successful? Heck no. Even when I get a golden star for the first part, I show up to work realizing a report was due yesterday, clients need to be handled, twelve people are asking different questions of me at once, and "OMG! Where are You?" kicks in (IF I even remember to pray at all)! But that's ok. Baby steps. 

Next post: Pray without Ceasing (For real? He wants me to pray ALL the time?)