The other night, Melissa was wanting to watch a program that she likes to watch, but I found that I wanted to see what was on the news. I logged on to my favorite website for that, and within a few moments I had read all the headlines that I needed.
But there were other websites to check out too. There is a website that will tell me what other things took place on this date in history, as well as a more international news. There was another website that specialized in sports, but had more information than I could digest in an hour.
And as I visited these websites, what popped up on the screen was the quick headlines along with the more provocative images: a child with a deformed face; a wide picture of protestors in the middle east; a lake nearly dried up in Texas. I caught myself as I clicked through the images thinking about what I was doing.
Based on the information I had seen, I could make an informed comment about a lot of issues and things, but could not talk in depth about almost anything I had read. I reminded myself about someone that my dad commented on in our church in Chicago: “He knows a little bit about a lot of things, but he doesn’t know a lot about anything.”
The point was that the people who are successful pay more attention to knowing a lot about a few things, and as time allows, expanding their knowledge. It made me wonder about our faith. Most of us are comfortable knowing a little bit about a lot of parts of our faith. Many of us know general definitions of Christian vocabulary: faith, grace, unconditional love, redemption, reconciliation, hope, Kingdom of God, etc.
But I wonder how much time we have spent swimming in the deeper waters of these words. What does it mean to live a life of grace, of hope, building the Kingdom, practicing unconditional love? These are the questions that someone who wants to know a lot about a few things takes seriously, and spends time on. And I think that the more time we spend, not only in church but also in our personal lives, on learning a lot about fewer things, we might find our faith growing deeper and deeper.
I hope that worship is a blessing for you today, Sonny