"Dying for a Lack of Knowledge" by Tonya Patrice Jordan

Dying for a Lack of Knowledge

by Tonya Patrice Jordan

I know just enough to make me stupid.  The man who made this statement is a deep thinker, not an aspiring comedian.  His self-awareness brings an unaddressed global crisis into focus.  We, the citizens of this world, have gotten too big for our own britches.

Admittedly, it is very hard not to feel like gods with the amount of technology at our fingertips.  This is the age of invention.  Humankind constantly strives to understand and subdue everything with which it comes in contact.  Our successes have been phenomenal.  Computers process incomprehensible amounts of information and spit out the answers we desire.  The special effects produced for our entertainment confirm that even the wildest vision can come to fruition; something can be made out of nothing.  Powerful telescopes allow mere mortals to glimpse eternity as we look past the boundaries of our galaxy.  Thing after thing submits to our will.  Is it the absolute proof of our dominion or our growing blindness?

We are explorers who have covered the earth, rocketed into the stars, and dived into the deep blue seas but still have not learned what is truly important.  Our gifted minds are hobbled by a lack of wisdom and imagination.  Many of us immediately reject anything unable to withstand the rigorous process of being proven objectively either through scientific experimentation or examination.  But the incomprehensible should not be confused with the improbable.  We ignore what is right under our noses.  People are dying, spiritually and physically, in the void where the kingship of our unseen but awesome God is not acknowledged. 

Our arrogance has sown the seeds of a destructive unbelief.  The consequences of this turning away is well documented for all to see.  The daily news is filled with reports of unspeakable acts of violence, bias, and cruelty.  Our world’s progressive moral decay is reflected in the nonsense we all watch on TV and in movie theaters.  The wealth of horror propagated on the internet confirms our dire state.   An anguish has descended upon the earth while God’s greatest creations are making much ado about things which essentially add up to nothing without Him.  The acquisition of useful and interesting data is hollow if balance is not sought.

There is hope if each one of us can admit to one important fact.  I know just enough to make me stupid.  Then, take an irrational leap and be humbled in the presence of a perfection that always will be outside the box of our collective intellect.  This allows the cries of a lost and troubled world to be answered with words of truth.  God is the one and only cure for what ails us all.  Honor Him above all else and find rest during the upheavals of life.  Receive knowledge in abundance by seeking His righteousness like you research the newest features on the latest smartphone.

The citizens of the earth have become the great unwashed in need of a renaissance.  Faith and science need not be mutually exclusively when God is made an essential part of the process of discovery and invention.  The heavens will open up, allowing our horizons to expand without limit.  Be a veritable know-it-all.  Thankfully, our intrepid hearts are up to the challenge.  Accept that we were never really alone in this wonderfully-made universe. 

Tonya Patrice Jordan is a poet, a writer, and a surgeon.  She is the author of Knowing Sunshine, a collection of inspirational poems and one short story. {read the book; website}  Currently, Tonya is working on her second collection of poems and one short story.  One of her first poems was published in the anthology Becoming Doctors, a collection of poetry and art created by medical students.  Her poems can be read in Linden Avenue Literary Magazine and Peace Poems, an anthology compiled for NJ Peace Action.  One of her short stories was a semifinalist in Ruminate Magazine’s 2015 short story contest.  Tonya writes the occasional opinion piece and blogs sometimes.  {read the blog America Needs God}  And her latest short film is presently in pre-production.