My Marilyn was captured by a bumper sticker that read “Wonder Without Googling“. It gives me pause. Have we lost the wonder? The computer has given us this sense of omniscience that creates the illusion that we can know it all. That we can have dominion over this world, have vice grip control over our world that knows no limits.
Common cold remedy? Financial advice? Marriage counsel? Google will always have the answer for us, right? And even though it is only an illusion, it is of course, the death of imagination, wonder and mystery.
Barbara Brown Taylor wrote that, “As our ability to control the world around us has increased, our respect for its mystery (of this world) has decreased.” So where is there room in our world for mystery when Wikipedia has all the answers?
Well, here’s the thing about Wikipedia: the articles written on the site about anyone or anything are literally written by anyone or anything. Anyone can add just about anything to an article on Wikipedia and we read it (and like so many lemmings) we take it for an indisputable fact.
I heard recently of a scientist who in response to a call from God, left his field of expertise to come to seminary. His field was astronomy and he shared this interest with his son who when they left for seminary was about 14. Astronomy for them became a great father/son bonding point.
Well one day in his seminary studies, he thought about how this certain thing in astronomy would be a good illustration of what he wanted to communicate in a paper he was writing. But just to be sure of his facts, he went on line to confirm his theory. And on Wikipedia he found an article that was exactly what he was looking for and it confirmed his idea completely, down to the last letter. Only after he had written his paper did he discover that the article he consulted in Wiki was written by a 14 year old boy, his son!
Could it be that what we need to leave behind a Wikipedia view of living this Christian life and what we need to begin is to get comfortable with not being in complete control … not having our every question answered by doing a Google search?
… you never know what will happen when you abandon the sense of needing all the answers and needing to be in control and instead, let the One who is meant to rule your life rule it and see what a day might hold or what wondrous thing might unfold. My best guess is that it holds the kind of mystery and wonder Google could never supply and Wikipedia could never explain.