Data vs Knowledge
Ok, how many of you know what this picture is? Go ahead, raise your hands. Wow, I can see that many of you are old like me!!! 
For you younger people, it is a picture of a punch card which was the way we “communicated” with a computer before the days of our keyboard! It was labor intensive and not particularly reliable. One wrong punch and your whole job was simply “punched out.” But, done properly the data inserted would result in some kind of information in the end.
Today, although we don’t deal in pouch cards any longer, we are dealing with data all the time. In fact, some have said we live in the era of knowledge overload. But, as a dear friend once said to me (Ok, Ken Renfro, you’re in my blog! :-)) we are NOT in the knowledge overload era, but rather the data overload era. He caused me to think of the difference between mere data and useable knowledge. If you don’t believe me, the next time you google something, look at how many “hits” it gets. Will you ever get to number 1,325,432? NOOOOOO! So, you have been overloaded with data.
Today, spiritually speaking, we are in the data overload era. Today we are hearing voices from many sides. King Solomon said this over 2800 year ago, “Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh.” Can I get an amen from all students? Publishers are publishing more and more books that can be described by King Solomon’s favorite word; vanity.
Paul admonishes us to walk in wisdom. Wisdom is knowledge properly applied to life. Knowledge is making sense of data. God isn’t interested in how much data we have stored in our brain. He is interested in how much knowledge we have that can be translated into wisdom. Certainly we need data so we can form knowledge. But, just having facts at our fingertips isn’t enough. It’s like the child in AWANA who memorizes words to pass a section and get “shares” so they can “buy” stuff in the AWANA store, and the person who memorizes a verse and uses it in a real life situation.
Sunday we will seek to finish the section Paul began by saying, “…walk…” He has instructed us to walk in love, walk in light and finally walk in wisdom. Read through Ephesians 5:1-17 before coming to church on Sunday to prepare your heart for our study.
I’ll be prepared to preach the passage, will you be prepared to hear?
Tags: Awana, data, Epistle to the Ephesians, Knowledge, Knowledge Management, overload, Solomon, Wisdom
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