Relating to a basically ominpresent internet, and an actually omnipresent God

Emily writes well, doesn't she? It makes being her co-blogger an intimidating prospect and I've been having trouble thinking of things worth sharing via that prestigious medium, the internet. However, writing that sentence has just given me an idea for a blog post (see the blog post's title). Huzzah!

In the previous weeks I have spent desk warming, my apparent sweet release from boredom and inertia has been that triumph of the human spirit, the internet. Where capitalism reigns in equal measure with socialism, so much money and so much freely shared. I cannot fathom the technological advances that have brought us to this place. I have a free period at school. What should I do? What would I like to see? What would I like to know? The internet is basically limitless in promises. I can look up pretty much any subject of history of science or politics or geography or grammar (useful as an English teacher) I want, without moving 90% of my body. I can cross check one source with another. If these immediately accessible sources aren't satisfying my scholarly standards, I can type in my credit card and have instant access to peer reviewed online journals. Humanity's collective knowledge is available to me at the expense of abstract credit card money that I've never seen and doesn't really belong to me, and however many calories it takes to type and think. This surely is remarkable.

But my eyes are lower than the far reaches of humanity's collective knowledge. Or are they perhaps higher? What of art? Music? Beauty? I can go on www.youtube.com and listen to pretty much anything that anyone has ever called a song and anyone else has enjoyed enough to put on the internet. I can look at any painting famous enough to justify looking at, and I can often zoom in so close that I can see the individual hair strokes in the individual brush strokes, an option not possible at most galleries and museums, which wisely wish to prevent my moist breath breathed on that which should instead be breathtaking. But on the internet I will surely miss out on the beauty of collections won't I? I can't see an entire exhibit, I can't go from one painting to the next, so thoughtfully laid out by a passionate and instinctive curator who has made this type of thing their life's work. Or can I? Check this out, it is amazing. www.googleartproject.com. World famous galleries I can virtually walk around in.

But I confess, my eyes are still lower than the higher arts, but surely my time is no less wasted for that. While I don't spend my time listening to and viewing the much heralded genius of Mozart or Monet, I still pay attention to genius. I still see artists at work. I can watch any cricket game good enough to be broadcast in India, which currently includes the World Cup, the greatest of all cricketing events. I need only search "cricket live streaming" and I can watch the graceful art of Tendulkar or the beautiful grit of Kallis. Admittedly, the time zone difference hasn't been generous to me in this regard, but I can still read a ball by ball description of 6 hours worth of play the very next day.

But I confess, my eyes are still lower than that. I wish I could justify the five minutes I spend on Facebook as a reflection of my love for people, but when that five minutes is repeated 6 times over the period of a day and I have barely related to anyone aside from reading their status updates, it's difficult to fool myself.

The internet is revealing to me that my eyes are aimed too low to appreciate the enormity of humanity's knowledge, too low to appreciate the staggering genius of our art, too low even to properly and fully appreciate the people who hold so much of my heart.

This is not a criticism of the internet, just the too often low standards of my heart.

And if I don't take the time to relate to people, observe genius or find out some of the vastness of humanity's knowledge, what hope do I have of ever seeking the God Most High, whose wisdom, knowledge, genius and love we have collectively barely noted, and never measured. The God who is the good giver of our knowledge and genius and passion and relationships.

As I said, this is not a criticism of the internet. But it is a hopeful, tentative, nervous resolve about the internet. I will seek to use it as something that helps me raise my eyes higher than they have ever been raised. As something that will help me seek and know Him who made me and loves me. I say hopeful, tentative and nervous because I know, and you now know, that my heart is easily satisfied. Fortunately, God promises to do something about that.


"I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh." Ezekiel 11:19.

(I wasn't exactly sure where that verse was, so I checked on www.biblegateway.com.)