Over my ten years of ministry, one of the the phrases I’ve heard again and again for people who are experiencing unexpected medical emergencies is: “We’ll know more tomorrow.” This whispers of the knowledge that is gained by invoking tests and stats, bloodwork and scans, and being in the care of medical professionals who have years of study and experience in guiding us.
It strikes me that when we aren’t in a medical emergency, this isn’t a posture we often take. In fact if anything as I get older and am around people who are older, the posture I more often encounter is: “I know what I need to know,” or as my eight-year-old has taken to saying recently: “I already knew that.”
It’s significant to note the difference in these two mindsets. “We’ll know more tomorrow,” indicates that you are open and seeking answers. You want to know more and you are trusting the expertise that surrounds. “I know what I need to know” or “I already knew that,” indicates that you believe you are the expert and that you don’t need to learn from anyone else.
Having the world’s knowledge at our fingertips and in our back pockets was mesmerizing when we connected our phones to the internet and our daily lives. I can’t help but wonder if now fifteen years later it has actually impeded our curiosity and desire to learn something new. More often than not, when we go looking for answers now, it is not consulting experts in the field, but finding voices like ours to reassure ourselves that we are right. I can’t help but think there is a connection between these patterns of information seeking and the divisions and derisive rhetoric that we encounter more often in people today.
It’s just my hunch, but the pocket computers that we so often consult rather than connecting with experts and people who view the world differently that we do remind me of the forbidden fruit. We are seeking to be right, not to learn more. That search will only lead to disconnect from the Divine, from ourselves, and from each other.
At least I think so, but I’ll know more tomorrow.