In The Know

When I heard about the terrorist attack in New York this past Tuesday, I found my self reading and listening and watching every news source I could access in order to find out anything new, to be updated, in the know.  The unfolding events were horrible and the tragedy grabbed at me personally, as photographs of destroyed bicycles were broadcast and then rebroadcast, for hours.  The people riding those bikes hours earlier were gone, murdered.  How could this have happened? 
As I tried to take it in and figure it out, I continued to watch, listen and read the available news sources.  It gave me a sense of control.   Thinking that if I knew what had happened and what was discovered I could somehow protect myself, I continued for hours. 

I was in the need to know. 

Until, two days later, it occurred to me that my knowledge of the tragedy did not prevent a like tragedy from happening to me or anyone else.

My knowledge is just that.  I have facts, opinion and analysis, but what I don’t have is control.  I can know about evil, but I cannot control it in another person.  Often, I cannot control the evil in myself.   So why the thirst to have that knowledge? 

In Eden, the temptation was to knowledge.  As if knowing meant control and power.  Even today, we say “Knowledge is Power.”  But in truth, knowledge is just knowledge.  It does not dispense power or control.  Knowledge is a good thing and indeed helpful in many ways.   We all, for instance, want our surgeons to be knowledgeable in their field.  We want our lawyers to be up to date on their knowledge of the law.  But their knowing, our knowing, does not translate into perfect actions.  It does not mean that all will be well.  We are all limited creatures.  Knowing good and evil does not make for doing good and not doing evil. 

The lure of knowledge was to be like God.  I will never be God and never, by knowing good and evil, be like Him.  I will be crushed with too much knowledge, I will be undone.  I am not infinite, I am not almighty, I am human.  To acknowledge that bit of news is the beginning of wisdom