Spiritual Information Overload.

For the past few weeks I've been reading Jim Elliot's bio, Shadow of the Almighty, written by Elisabeth Elliot. It is a phenomenal biography; Jim was a man of so much focus, determination, and passion for seeing the name of Jesus shared and the glorify of God lived out in his life - whether he was at college or at home or living as a missionary in Ecuador.

While several things throughout these pages have deeply moved me, one of Jim's reflections near the end of the book warrants mention (more posts about this book will follow, I am sure!). In a letter to his father, he wrote of 25 new believers in one of the small villages where he preaches, asking for prayer that those Indians that cannot read and must be fed in their new faith only through words from Jim and others. These illiterate believers must rely on the words and training of others to grow in their faith.

This summer, while visiting a church in Bellevue, NE, I heard a guest speaker named Jesse speak about his work among the Lisu People in Burma. The church had been supporting Jesse for many years, and Jesse was there to share about his current project - printing a Bible for the Lisu people. There are more than 500,000 Christian Lisu that have no written Bible in their language. It took Jesse and a team of people 6 years to translate the word of God. Jesse explained the importance of this project with one simple sentence in his accented English: "You can't make Christians without the word of God."

I have so many tools to help me grow in my faith; whole libraries of good Christian books written by theologians and pastors, thousands of sermons available online with outlines, notes and cross references, and numerous wonderful people that serve as spiritual leaders in my life.

All of these things are great, but I also need to take responsibility for my own growth. If I only depend on the revelations that others have, and don't seek to know God through his word, I am limiting my growth and my knowledge of God.

We live in a world where there is a potential for constant Spiritual Information Overload (hereto referred to as SIO). As I type this, I can see out of the corner of my eye the stack of 10 books that I've been wanting to read for a year. I have a sort of "spiritual growth to-do list" in my head, sermons to listen to, magazine articles to read, blogs to check up on. I'm committed to several Bible studies and book discussions already this semester, and I find myself thinking, Can I really retain all of this information, making it meaningful and applicable in my life??

In the Cru world, I've heard this described as "trying to drink from a fire hose." I really enjoy attending conferences, working through my spiritual development training for ministry, and reading the newest Christian book - and all these things help me grow. The funny thing is, some of the most memorable times of learning spiritual truth have been on my own. There are certain verses that will never leave my memory (Acts 4:12, Philippians 3:9, to name a few); the very first time I read them I was studying God's word in my dorm room, or in a cubby at the library - and when I read those verses the words seemed to jump of the page into my heart. They were little pieces of hope that inspired, encouraged and guided me in my faith.

I am mainly preaching to the choir here, but I also want to encourage you to consider how you can be even more rooted and grounded in the word of God. Many of us have multiple Bibles in our language while hundreds of thousands of believers around the world do not have one. If we are not rooted in the Word of God, we limit our growth, and our ability to stand firm when opposition comes our way.