A head full of knowledge

It's not something that I watched on a regular basis, but I thought about the show The Big Bang Theory. This show followed a group of physists that were very knowledgeable in their fields of study. Leonard, Howard and Raj, while smart and having knowledge, were still able to function in the everyday things of life. Sheldon, however, had such a level of knowledge that he was incapable of operating outside of that knowledge and schedules. 

The pursuit of knowledge is not a bad thing. We can't go through life ignorant and dumb. But when knowledge keeps us from living, it becomes an issue. 

In 2015, I got into trying to do some art projects. I was drawing and coloring things which I felt God was showing me at the time. One of the things I drew was the outline of a person's head filled with book after book of knowledge. The books were all from the neck up, all in the head and moved no farther than that. There was a pitcher of water being poured into the open skull representing the wisdom of God. It flowed into the head and back over the top, being poured back out because there was no room for it to go any farther. All the knowledge held in the head blocked the flow into the withering heart, which reprented the soul of the person. It was ugly and it has long since been thrown away. But after this weekend, I was reminded of that drawing.

You see, I've been one that has thrived on knowledge. I felt that the more I knew then the better I would be. It didn't matter if it was worldly knowledge or spiritual knowledge, I wanted to know all that I could. But just like Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory, the more knowledge I had didn't get me to the place where I could function any better. It didn't make me a better person. 

Solomon was the wisest man in the Bible. When God asked him what he desired when he became king, he could have asked for great power. He could have asked for riches and fame throughout the land. He asked for wisdom though. In Proverbs 4:7, he wrote “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.”

I can sit here and study all day and all night if I want to gain knowledge. I can study all that I can about torques and the importance of them for my job. I can study every health issues that plagues my husband so that I can know everything I can about them. But knowing about any of these things does absolutely no good unless I have the wisdom to know what to do with them and the understanding of what they mean.

Spiritually, or relationally with Christ, I can know everything the Word says to do. But like the old saying at the end of the G.I. Joe cartoon, "Knowing is half the battle." There is a saying that the distance between heaven and hell is 13 inches, that is the distance between the brain and the heart. I can know this stuff all day but until I allow that knowledge to become wisdom and understanding, flowing from my brain into my heart, I'm still that silhouette person that I drew with the water flowing back out and splashing back on the ground around me. 

For reference sake, the brain here is our carnal man. The heart is the spiritual man. I've spent 45 years packing everything that I can into my brain. I'm trying very hard to let God dig through all of that so that the wisdom can flow to the heart. 

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