Too Much Information? A Sober Warning from the Bible
Ever had somebody drop TMI (too much information!) on you when you weren't expecting it? Not fun!
While much of the world has unlimited information available at one's fingertips, TMI can be a serious problem. A warning in 2 Timothy clues us in, and we look at four specific dangers in today's episode:
- Distraction
- Diversion
- Deterrent
- Disguise
While God desires us to be people of knowledge and wisdom, this doesn't automatically mean we will be people who know or follow the truth. Learn how these four dangers are ever present and how to avoid them without going to the other extreme of TLI -- too little information!
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Transcript
Have you ever been in a conversation or maybe you've been reading a social media post and all of a sudden you heard or read something and you were like, whoa, that is way too much information.
Speaker A:Didn't see that coming and wish you hadn't dropped that on me.
Speaker A:Information is a good thing until it becomes a bad thing.
Speaker A:And there is a particular verse in the Bible that is a sobering warning about that, and we're going to talk about that today.
Speaker A:Stay tuned.
Speaker B:If your desire is to become spiritually stronger, emotionally healthier, and relationally smarter, you're at the right place.
Speaker B:Speaker and writer Stephanie Smith inspires and equips you to achieve these three key aims.
Speaker B:If you're a parent, you also learn how to raise empowered kids Ready for adulthood.
Speaker B:Let's get started.
Speaker A:Welcome back, listeners.
Speaker A:I'm delighted that you are here, especially for those of you who are new, maybe this is your very first time you've ever listened and maybe you've been listening for a short period of time and especially enjoying the guest interviews that we've had.
Speaker A:And yes, we do have more of those coming up starting next week.
Speaker A:And I also want to say thank you to those who take the time to leave a rating and a review.
Speaker A:It really does help other people to sort through the, I don't know, 3 million other podcasts on the planet and to know, hey, this one is worth listening to or at least checking out.
Speaker A:And if by some chance you've been listening for a while and you haven't taken the time to leave a rating and a review, hey, would you just make the time to just do that today?
Speaker A:You know, you, it takes less time than you'll sit in a drive thru waiting for a cup of coffee.
Speaker A:Definitely less time than it takes to brew one at home.
Speaker A:And it really is.
Speaker A:Not only is it just an encouragement to me, but it really does help to pay it forward to let other people know about this podcast.
Speaker A:And I am very excited to announce a brand new book that just came out.
Speaker A:It is for anyone who has a child or a student or works with anybody between the ages of 12 and 24, that period of adolescence.
Speaker A:Because yes, adolescence isn't just about the teenage years.
Speaker A:It really does extend into those early to mid-20s.
Speaker A:And there's a fascinating remodel that takes place physically in the brain.
Speaker A:And I break that down and it's just a tremendous help for people to be able to understand, oh, this is what's going on and to be able to say I really need to understand this so I can Align myself with this as a parent, as an educator, as a mentor.
Speaker A:So I'm going to give you some more information about that at the end of today's podcast.
Speaker A:We're going to jump in and we're going to talk about tmi.
Speaker A:Too much information.
Speaker A:And we might also talk about what we don't hear quite so much about, and that is tli Too little information.
Speaker A:There is a verse in the Bible that is sobering to me personally.
Speaker A:It's in the book of second Timothy, chapter three, verse six and seven.
Speaker A:And it's talking about Timothy is writing and he's telling the church, hey, I want you to be aware, here are some danger signs of things that you need to look for.
Speaker A:And he gives a list of those.
Speaker A:And then one of the things he talks about is he says there are people who are going to worm their way into households and they're going to captivate vulnerable women who are weighed down with sins and led astray by various passions, who are always learning, but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.
Speaker A:Ouch.
Speaker A:I mean, that is sobering.
Speaker A:You know, as a lifelong learner and as someone who, who loves to learn and is always seeking for information, that's sobering to me personally because it's a recognition to me that it's not the gathering of information itself that leads us automatically to truth.
Speaker A:As a matter of fact, information can lead us away from truth or it can obscure truth.
Speaker A:And I'm going to talk today about four specific dangers that we have to address with this idea of, of information.
Speaker A:Now, you've probably had a situation where you've been in a conversation or you've been reading something and then, or listening to something.
Speaker A:Maybe you've been listening to a speaker and all of a sudden they just drop something on you and you were like, oh, wow, that tmi, that was way too much information.
Speaker A:Didn't need to know that, thank you very much.
Speaker A:Not really.
Speaker A:And that's something that we want to be mindful of.
Speaker A:And, and part of our maturity is recognizing not just, hey, this is what I want to say, and I think it's cool and I think it's fine, but to be mindful of.
Speaker A:But how is this going to be received potentially by the listener?
Speaker A:Whether that's in a one on one conversation or for me as a speaker, that's something that I have to think about when I am preparing messages, is to be mindful of all the different people that might be sitting in that audience and how they might perceive things, what life experiences that they have had that might give them a different filter that I need to be mindful of now.
Speaker A:We do live in the information age.
Speaker A:There is no lack of information.
Speaker A:And yet how tragic is it and how ironic, tragically ironic it is that in this day of massive information that we have literally at our fingertips, we are getting further and further from the truth.
Speaker A:Information and truth are not the same things.
Speaker A:As a matter of fact, information can lead us away from the truth.
Speaker A:And not just to the point that it leads us away from our faith.
Speaker A:I'm not even talking about to, to that degree.
Speaker A:But it can also lead us away from living out our full life, our minimizing the impact that we have.
Speaker A:And I'm going to talk about four specific dangers that we have with information.
Speaker A:And one is information can become a distraction.
Speaker A:Now what I mean by this is that we can get so absorbed as we're going through life of getting this information and then that information and this and then and that and the other that we end up chasing butterflies in a sense.
Speaker A:Like if you were on a hike and your goal was to get to the end of this path and then, oh, there's this butterfly.
Speaker A:Oh, and then look, there's this cool thing over here.
Speaker A:And then look, there's this cool thing over here.
Speaker A:And then, oh, look at those flowers.
Speaker A:Now it's not about that we just zoom down the path and we never stop to, you know, quote, smell the roses or to look at the butterflies or things like that.
Speaker A:But rather when it gets to the point that it becomes so distracting to us that we aren't focused on where we're supposed to be headed, that's when information is going to steal some of our significance and our impact away from us.
Speaker A:Social media is an obvious illustration of that.
Speaker A:That can absolutely be a distraction.
Speaker A:Do you know that if you add up 15 minutes a day, just 15 minutes a day, that equals over 90 hours in a year.
Speaker A:Now that might not seem like a whole lot until you stop and think, you know what that is the equivalent of more than 10, two weeks of full time work.
Speaker A:You know what?
Speaker A:Just 30 minutes a day is an entire month of full time work.
Speaker A:I don't know anybody who sets out to say, you know, I have a goal this year, I'm going to spend an entire month on nothing but just scrolling through social media.
Speaker A:But if you just take five minutes and do that six times throughout the course of a day, well, there you are.
Speaker A:That's an entire month equivalent of full time work.
Speaker A:Actually even a little bit more than that so we want to be mindful of how we are using our time.
Speaker A:That we're not getting distracted by information that doesn't really serve us or God well.
Speaker A:Now, the second danger can sound an awful lot like distraction.
Speaker A:But it's a little bit different.
Speaker A:And that is the danger of diversion.
Speaker A:The difference between a distraction and a diversion is that a distraction isn't something that entirely gets you off your path.
Speaker A:It may slow us down.
Speaker A:It may keep us where we are.
Speaker A:Focused on just always dealing with the urgent rather than the important.
Speaker A:But diversion is something that moves us off of our best path.
Speaker A:And it seduces us into second, third, or fourth best.
Speaker A:Now, this doesn't mean that I have totally walked away from God.
Speaker A:I've totally walked away from my family.
Speaker A:I've totally walked away from my responsibilities.
Speaker A:I'm not talking about that level of diversion.
Speaker A:But I'm talking about something so that we move off what we need to be focused on what is most important.
Speaker A:And we start getting moving over into things where we're not really focused on the best that we need to do.
Speaker A:And this is something that can be really difficult for us.
Speaker A:Because, you know, we usually have an understanding of the difference between right and wrong.
Speaker A:Between, hey, this is good, that is bad.
Speaker A:But those aren't often the hardest choices that we have to make in life.
Speaker A:Sometimes the hardest choices are between what's best, what's better and what's good.
Speaker A:And we want to be mindful that it makes a difference in terms of the quality of the impact that we have in our lives.
Speaker A:Whether we choose between, okay, that's okay, that's good, that's all right.
Speaker A:And this is the big best use of my life.
Speaker A:Now, I don't mean by that that we want to live in this frantic state.
Speaker A:Where we never have time to rest or to refresh or for recreation.
Speaker A:I'm not talking about that.
Speaker A:I'm not talking about being driven.
Speaker A:The purpose of information is not to get us all in a state of panic.
Speaker A:So that we go through life driven by, okay, I have to be producing, producing, producing.
Speaker A:I'm not talking about that.
Speaker A:But because the best path for us will include a life of.
Speaker A:That includes rest.
Speaker A:That includes time for other people.
Speaker A:But we do want to be mindful that, again, we watch out.
Speaker A:That information doesn't become a distraction for us.
Speaker A:And it doesn't become a diversion.
Speaker A:Now, the third danger is a deterrent.
Speaker A:And this is something that is stronger yet.
Speaker A:And it is something that is going to so discourage us.
Speaker A:That we never even step onto the path that God is pointing us towards and to an extreme, yes, that can become where we just totally walk away from God.
Speaker A:But that's not really the focus that I have for today.
Speaker A:What I'm talking about is a deterrent.
Speaker A:We're or we have enough information that we can become so discouraged that we just don't ever step into the fullness of our lives.
Speaker A:Maybe as we become mindful of things in our lives that we need to work on, as God begins to reveal things in us that are not pleasing to him, that don't align with how we are supposed to be living, we have a choice in that we can either be consumed with guilt and shame and condemnation.
Speaker A:And that really is a way that keeps us very me centric, me focused.
Speaker A:Yes, guilt and shame and condemnation can keep us me focused.
Speaker A:Or what we can do when we gather that, when we have that information and we begin to see, oh, this is something in my life I need to work on, I need to bring to God, and I need to, whether it's to get help, whether it is to make lifestyle changes, whether it is to be diligent in prayer, whatever it is that we need to be doing to uphold our part of growth.
Speaker A:Trusting, of course, that ultimately it's always God that gives us the strength to carry those things forward, that we don't allow information to become a deterrent to us.
Speaker A:I'm going to throw this in for free for any of you who are raising children.
Speaker A:And this is one of the things that you want to be mindful of as you're raising your kids, that as you begin to make them aware of things that they are doing wrong and whether those are individual things like, no, we do not bite your sister.
Speaker A:No, we do not throw food on the floor.
Speaker A:No, we do not toss the cat into the bathtub.
Speaker A:Or as they get older and we begin to see patterns of behavior in their lives, patterns of thought and of thinking and things that we see that need to be corrected.
Speaker A:We want to be mindful that we do that in such a way that brings understanding and it brings awareness, but it does not bring with it this level of shame and condemnation so that they feel that the whole point of correction is just shame.
Speaker A:God does not give us information about what we need to work on in our lives as individuals because he is trying to shame us and condemns us.
Speaker A:The calling of God to repentance is a calling always to restoration.
Speaker A:It is an opportunity for restoration.
Speaker A:And when we approach discipline in our children with that perspective in mind, then we help them to understand that as they go through life and as they go through into adult life and they experience the correction of other people, they may have a spouse who says, hey, here's something that you're going to need to work on.
Speaker A:They have a boss, they have a colleague that they end up in other places in life where people, they become aware, hey, you need to work on this.
Speaker A:And especially as they build a relationship with God that they see that his correction, it's not there to say, hey, I found something else wrong with you.
Speaker A:Let me tell you what it is.
Speaker A:Here, let me shame you.
Speaker A:Here, let me beat you up with that.
Speaker A:That's never the point of that kind of information.
Speaker A:And that doesn't mean that God never gives us very stern warnings and says, hey, if you don't correct this, here's where that's going to lead.
Speaker A:Because he definitely does that.
Speaker A:But the heart behind it is to call people to health and to wholeness and to obedience and to a life of righteousness.
Speaker A:It's not just to point out, here's where you're blowing it.
Speaker A:Thought you might want to know that.
Speaker A:Get your act together, bud.
Speaker A:So as we gather information and as we learn, let's not let that become a deterrent to us so that we don't move forward.
Speaker A:And the last danger is disguise.
Speaker A:And this may be the deadliest danger of all, because this is when information creates the illusion of truth, but it's really not the truth.
Speaker A:And I wonder if that is what was going on with the people here that Timothy was addressing in this, this verse in 2nd Timothy 3.
Speaker A:7.
Speaker A:And he specifically says that this.
Speaker A:These people targeted who?
Speaker A:Weak women.
Speaker A:Why do that?
Speaker A:These people were deliberately targeting vulnerable women.
Speaker A:And how were they captivating them and how were they misleading them?
Speaker A:It was because these women were weak.
Speaker A:They were vulnerable.
Speaker A:They were weighed down with sins, and they were led astray.
Speaker A:They were not living aligned with.
Speaker A:With God's truth.
Speaker A:And I wonder if it is a matter that sometimes today that we can be so weighed down by sin.
Speaker A:And what I want to point out there is I don't think this only applies to active present sin.
Speaker A:I don't want to discount that.
Speaker A:I don't want to say, oh, the scripture isn't talking about that.
Speaker A:Rather, I'm expanding that to see we can be weighed down by the sins of our past and we can allow the guilt that we have to keep us weak, to keep us vulnerable.
Speaker A:Because when a person is living in a place of shame, and that is very different from a place of ownership, or place of repentance.
Speaker A:Repentance and conviction are not the same thing as shame and condemnation.
Speaker A:But when a person is living in a place of shame and, and not conviction, but condemnation, they are vulnerable.
Speaker A:They are.
Speaker A:There's a weakness that, that creates in a person.
Speaker A:And that's one of the reasons why we do want to make real the forgiveness of God.
Speaker A:And in that weakness, it makes people easily led astray by various passions.
Speaker A:Now, we don't really know what these passions were, but we, we want to be careful that just because we are passionate about something, that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to lead us in the right direction.
Speaker A:You know, we hear a lot today about follow your passion, follow your passion.
Speaker A:What's your passion?
Speaker A:And there's a point to that, and there's a truth to that.
Speaker A:But we want to be careful that, that we don't give that more value, that we don't balance that with other truths, that we also need to be asking that we also need to be paying attention to.
Speaker A:What's our motivation behind that passion?
Speaker A:Is that passion to serve God?
Speaker A:Is it to serve others or is it to serve myself?
Speaker A:Passion itself is not enough for us to make a good judgment about, about whether that should be motivating us.
Speaker A:And then as we go on, so what can we do with this then?
Speaker A:The first thing is that we make certain that we spend time in the Word.
Speaker A:And again, we've heard that, we've heard that, we've heard that, but are we doing that?
Speaker A:You know, Hebrews 4:12 tells us, for the Word of God is living and active.
Speaker A:Sharper than any double edged sword.
Speaker A:It pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow.
Speaker A:It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Speaker A:If we are not in the Word, we are starving ourselves from the oxygen that God has give us, has given to us to be able to live well on this world.
Speaker A:Now is that the only place that we can find knowledge and wisdom?
Speaker A:No, it's not.
Speaker A:But that is where we begin.
Speaker A:That is our North Star.
Speaker A:That is the constant in our life.
Speaker A:And then we can look at what kind of information are we bringing into our lives?
Speaker A:Are we bringing in information that is just distraction, Is it a diversion, is it a deterrent?
Speaker A:And then what are we doing with the information that we have?
Speaker A:Are we just gathering it or are we actually using it and putting it to use in our lives?
Speaker A:And then what kind of fruit are we seeing from that?
Speaker A:So I want you to be a lifelong learner.
Speaker A:I am myself and I want you to be that as well.
Speaker A:But we do want to be mindful of what this verse in second Timothy warns us about, and that is that we are careful that we don't just become people who accumulate knowledge and then allow that knowledge, though to never bring us to the truth.
Speaker A:We want to be people who walk out the knowledge and the wisdom and the fullness of God.
Speaker A:Now, earlier in the episode, I told you about a brand new book I have.
Speaker A:And yes, it is packed with knowledge, it is packed with information and it is a fantastic resource for anyone who has a child, a student, someone maybe that you mentor, maybe you are a youth sponsor, or maybe it's just information that you think would be cool to have, but it walks through in a easy to understand way.
Speaker A:The physiological remodel that takes place in the brain during adolescence.
Speaker A:It's a short and savvy guy.
Speaker A:This is not a long book.
Speaker A:And the reason for that is because I basically I have acted as your AI assistant.
Speaker A:I have done all the reading and all the research and then I have taken that and I have distilled it down to just the essence of what you want to know.
Speaker A:And I've used the analogy of a home remodel because most people can relate to that.
Speaker A:Even if they haven't been a participant in a home remodel themselves, they know somebody who has, or they've seen it on tv.
Speaker A:And so it's an easy way to understand this is what goes on in the brain during adolescence.
Speaker A:And when people really understand this and that this whole period, it's more than just, oh, there's hormones that go on in the body.
Speaker A:But to understand the significance of what happens in the brain and how it really does change how someone sees the world, how they experience the world, what becomes physically desirable and the appetites that develop within the brain itself, then it really can help you.
Speaker A:It can empower you to understand those ages.
Speaker A:So again, basically between the ages of 12 and 24, if you've got younger kids, hey, it's not too early to start educating yourself now.
Speaker A:There will be links in the show notes.
Speaker A:It's available on Amazon.
Speaker A:You can also go to my website, stephanie presents.com there's a couple of different ways you can order the book there.
Speaker A:You can get some more information about it, or you can also just go to Amazon and get that it's the Great Brain Remodel of Adolescence.
Speaker A:How Contractors and Alligators empower understanding ages 12 to 24.
Speaker A:And I think you're going to find it's informative and it's also an engaging and fun read.
Speaker A:And lastly, if you're new around here then you may not know that I am a speaker and there's information on how you can get in touch with me and book me to speak at your women's event or for a parenting conferences and also at Christian schools for homeschool organizations and all of that's on the website stephaniepresents.com all right my friend, go out and remember you want to have information but you don't want to get caught up in the dangers of TMI because you do have an impact that is immeasurable, eternal and irreplaceable.
Speaker A:I'll see you next time.
Speaker B:Thank you for listening.
Speaker B:Visit the website stephaniepresents.com and sign up for High Impact to join the mission of building spiritually strong, emotionally healthy and relationally smart women and families.
Speaker B:You can also book Stephanie to speak at your event and check out additional resources.
Speaker B:Together we can invite and equip generations to engage fully in God's grand story.
