Information Overload
Lately I’ve been sensing that my brain is full. And when it reaches capacity, it doesn’t function quite as God intended.
Looking around, I don’t think I’m the only one feeling this way. So what’s going on?
As we move into the age of Artificial Intelligence, information no longer comes at us slowly. Unlike the measured drip, drip, drip of a steady rain, an inexhaustible amount of content can assault us like a flood.
News reports. Statistics. Advertisements. Videos. Updates. Internet searches. More and more information, arriving faster and faster.
Better computers, smarter phones, and continual connectivity only deepen the flow. And in such a climate, even good information can get lost in the deluge. So what’s an overwhelmed person to do?
As you drive around the Austin area, you’ll notice the regular appearance of empty grassy depressions, little lakes behind neighborhoods, and fenced-off basins — some rather ordinary, others made beautiful with landscaping.
If you spot one of these, there’s a good chance you’re looking at a piece of our city’s stormwater infrastructure.
These detention basins serve as shock absorbers for rain. They’re designed to take the sudden rush of a Texas downpour, collect the surge, and release it slowly over time.
Maybe we need to do the same thing with what we receive on Sunday.
When you hear a content-heavy message, don’t feel like you have to absorb it all at once. Instead, ask how you might slow the flow:
Take notes and review them. Turn the main points into prayers. Memorize a key Scripture. Talk about the message with someone over lunch. Meditate on what God might be teaching you throughout the week. Share something you learned with somebody else.
Don’t simply let the Word wash over you and disappear downstream.
Collect it. Hold onto it. Let it sink in.
Because God’s Word is not meant merely to pass through us. It is meant to accomplish something in us.
“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish… so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
Isaiah 55:10–11
— Pastor Pete
Looking around, I don’t think I’m the only one feeling this way. So what’s going on?
As we move into the age of Artificial Intelligence, information no longer comes at us slowly. Unlike the measured drip, drip, drip of a steady rain, an inexhaustible amount of content can assault us like a flood.
News reports. Statistics. Advertisements. Videos. Updates. Internet searches. More and more information, arriving faster and faster.
Better computers, smarter phones, and continual connectivity only deepen the flow. And in such a climate, even good information can get lost in the deluge. So what’s an overwhelmed person to do?
As you drive around the Austin area, you’ll notice the regular appearance of empty grassy depressions, little lakes behind neighborhoods, and fenced-off basins — some rather ordinary, others made beautiful with landscaping.
If you spot one of these, there’s a good chance you’re looking at a piece of our city’s stormwater infrastructure.
These detention basins serve as shock absorbers for rain. They’re designed to take the sudden rush of a Texas downpour, collect the surge, and release it slowly over time.
Maybe we need to do the same thing with what we receive on Sunday.
When you hear a content-heavy message, don’t feel like you have to absorb it all at once. Instead, ask how you might slow the flow:
Take notes and review them. Turn the main points into prayers. Memorize a key Scripture. Talk about the message with someone over lunch. Meditate on what God might be teaching you throughout the week. Share something you learned with somebody else.
Don’t simply let the Word wash over you and disappear downstream.
Collect it. Hold onto it. Let it sink in.
Because God’s Word is not meant merely to pass through us. It is meant to accomplish something in us.
“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish… so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
Isaiah 55:10–11
— Pastor Pete