Our world is down-side-up leaving, us confused as to what is right-side-down; ‘discombobulated’ describes our modern society.
A confused society, which leaves each of us disconnected and out of harmony with others, has left us all as overseers of ‘one’, our own ‘self’. I know that there are 2.4 billion internet users worldwide, and 1 billion Facebook monthly users, and 200 million monthly users of Twitter; but can you say that these channels of communication really connect people to others? Heart to heart?
The world has become one global community with 7+ billion individual voices clamoring to be heard, all at once, every day, resulting in incongruous actions with professed beliefs and principles.
As one who grew up in a home with parents and siblings who enjoyed arguing as much as a cat thrills tormenting a mouse, I have always run as far away and as quickly as I can toward peaceful and quiet atmospheres. If people become too noisy, and the least bit contentious, I’m out of there.
Why are so many out of sync with the rest of the world, when there are so many ways to connect? The answer is very simple: we no longer know which way is up and which way is down. We no longer connect on a personal face-to-face basis. We have become connected electronically, while we have disconnected at the heart, leaving us discombobulated! Our earthy wisdom has made us into fools, calling that which is wrong – right! (Isaiah 5:20)
The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. No matter how many degrees one acquires, and no matter how much these inflate the ego, all those years of study leaves one foolish without a personal relationship with God. (I Corinthians 3:19)
In fact, the Bible says that the ‘fear of the Lord’ is the ‘beginning of wisdom’. (Proverbs 1:7) The Hebrew word ‘Yirah’, used for the word ‘fear’ in this instance, is ‘reverence and awe for, and obedience to, the Lord’. “Yirah’ includes the idea of wonder, amazement, mystery, astonishment, gratitude, admiration, and worship. The ‘fear of the Lord’ is an overwhelming sense of glory, worth, and beauty in the one true God. When you stand on the rim of the Grand Canyon, or on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, or in your backyard looking up at the countless stars of the Universe, you feel a little of this word, ‘Yirah’.
If reverence and awe for the Glory of Yahweh is the start of wisdom, then devoting our energy to seeking education, status and accumulations of material things of this world, connecting through gadgets without connecting through the heart, which all exalt ‘self’, is what has us ‘discombobulated’!
Education is needed; but education for the sake of promoting ‘self’ leaves one with many acquaintances around the world-wide-web, without any true heart-to-heart connections. The Internet and different social media, as well as college degrees, are necessary to secure a decent wage in today’s world; but if they are used only for selfish means, then one is still left without God: the true source of all Wisdom.
David spent a lot of time alone with God, his sheep, and God’s Word. He meditated on God’s Word continually. The Word of God, meditated upon daily, brings light and understanding to our carnal minds and souls, making us wiser than our enemies and all our earthly teachers, and all the secular, worldly, aged men of this world. The Word of God keeps our feet from every evil way and our hearts abiding by God’s rules, shining a light onto our pathways so that our feet do not stumble and our minds are without confusion. It is all done with joy, because obedience to God and awe for His Glory taste sweeter than honey to our spiritual man! David saw, with lucidness, that wisdom and knowledge all began with a personal relationship with his God, by continually meditating in and on His Word.
Psalm 119:97-106, “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, or your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts. I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word. I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to keep your righteous rules.”
Man shall not live by bread alone, or by the things of this life in and by themselves, but by the Words that proceed from the mouth of God. Those Words of God are still printed in the pages of the Holy Bible, sitting on your coffee table just waiting for you to open and partake. A personal relationship with God, wisdom that comes from the reverence of God and His Word. Both begin by reading, and hearing those Words speak to your heart the awe and reverence of God. How will your relationships change to please your God, if you don’t read and meditate on His Word? How will you ever stand in awe and reverence of God and His Word, if you never read and meditate in His Word?
In a world that connects all nations of the world into one global village via the internet, demanding an average of 11 hours daily of individual time spent on social media, discombobulation will abound until we make a dedicated personal effort to spend more time with God and His Word, exalting Him.