The Christian Mind and Google

A scenario you have probably seen recently—you and your friends are debating certain issues and you come up on a question.  Where do you go to find the answer?  Just Google it.  That seems to be the first response these days.  If it relates to an event, entertainment, food, money, relationships, politics, the economy, and the like, we find today that often we go to Google for help in finding the answer.  It’s quick and easy.  Also, you don’t have to work hard for the answer.  What a joy!

Is it the same among Christians today?  When we want an answer to a question about the Christian life, do we Google it?  If there is a matter related to any of the same categories above and you are looking for an answer from a Christian perspective, do you Google it?  What about deeper issues of our faith and doctrine?  Let’s Google it and take a chance that what we see is biblical and correct.  What is the effect on the Christian mind when we do this?

This has been nagging me a lot over the past few years as a believer.   I have a hard time reconciling this with diligent, systematic Bible study.  After all, we are supposed to involved in studying the Scriptures, aren’t we?  Now I can even read the Bible in Tweets.  Maybe some of our brains can’t handle more than that anyway.  Leave it to the preachers to teach us.

But wait, now we just stay at home and get the preacher’s podcast.  I can lounge around in my pajamas Sunday morning and play the service in the background while petting the dog.  Get me a cup of Joe, the morning news, and my preacher on webcast.  Man, this Christianity thing is great!  I wonder what Jesus would do?  WWJD?

Well, apparently we are no longer asking “WWJD” but we are asking “WWGD,” that is, “What Would Google Do?”  The book has been written, I am not kidding.  The author Jeff Jarvis has prophesied in the new book What Would Google Do? that if we are not asking the question we are going to be left behind in the dust of some prior model of obsolescence.  Google is our new model for thinking, according to Jarvis, and it is hard to find a sector of life and business that has not already been affected by its influence.   Jarvis goes on to say, “Google is changing our societies, our lives, our relationships, our worldviews, probably even our brains in ways we can only begin to calculate.”

That’s where I got concerned for Christians.  We are new creations in Christ, the old has gone, the new has come.  Our minds should be set on what the Spirit desires as we live with the Holy Spirit within us; the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace (see Romans 8:5-8).  We read Scripture, we pray, we turn our minds toward God, toward His goodness, toward life in the Son.  Yet we seek quick answers to spiritual things by Googling it.  Dangers abound when we do.

Fight the reflex.  That’s right, fight the reflex to Google an answer to a spiritual question.  Go to the Source.  We are told to “take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).  We are even told we have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16).  Dwell on this a bit, and when you have a question go to God’s Word.  Ask the Lord to know your mind, to know your thoughts, and to lead you in the way everlasting (Psalm 139).

I know what I am saying may sound contrarian, but I maintain that Jesus was a contrarian.  So I am returning to WWJD next time I am seeking an answer.  I hope you will follow.

Stick With the Basics

Staying current makes for a tiring pursuit.  I mean, there are so many avenues of information out there and we need discernment to know which path to take.  Nevertheless, I continue down some path each day that leads me to thinking about topics with relevance to both our generation and the next generation.

One such topic is making a living.  Yes, that thing we do upon finishing some level of education and enter the real world.  Maybe this is a Westernized notion, but we do need shelter and food on the table and the means to getting this here in the U.S. is through a job.

From some of my reading, I sense there is a redefinition of “making a living” in the works.  Particularly among the next generation, there appears to be a type of entrepreneurship going on that espouses linking a new startup venture with some technological discovery that will make millions.  For example, the rush to create new applications for the I-Phone seems to be a particularly ripe area for making money these days.  The number of new applications does appear to have a limit though.

Some like to refer to these entrepreneurs as “heroic,” that is, someone who ventures away from the common path to seek a new path of riches perhaps driven by a vision to make the world a better place for all of us.  Now this might be a stretch.  Can an I-Phone app make for a better world?  These things have a life span, you know, and they ultimately end up being replaced by something newer, faster, slicker.  Last time I checked my world was just fine even before the I-Phone.

This brings me to the point for the next generation—stick with the basics.  Begin by asking questions like, “What are the basic things needed in my life, the lives of the typical person or family here in this country?”  Or, “What are the basics for a successful business?”  We have pushed to the edge so much in recent years that I fear we have gotten away from an understanding of the basics.

Perhaps this is further clarified through a Proverb I read this morning.  “He who works his land will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies lacks judgement” Proverbs 12:11.  Fantasies refer to schemes for making easy money.  Is that where we are today with the scads of schemes for making a buck on the web or with these unending myriads of applications for electronic devices?  Again, you can only carry these things out so far before they end up consuming the consumed.

The notion of “working the land” is what I would refer to as a basic.  Working the land implies a steadiness, a knowledge that there is a God who provides me something to do with my hands and helps me in this daily act of “making a living.”  If you work the land, you are dependent on good weather and regular attention to caring for the things you planted.  It seems that some of the next generation want to bypass the planting and get on to the reaping.  That is a rather short-term view.

Let’s return to the basics.  It may be more satisfying than you can imagine.