That's me there, in the middle of the front row.

That's how I felt yesterday. We were into our 7th day of class, and because the program crams an entire graduate level course into two weeks of class, the reading, writing, lecturing and discussion has been pretty fast and furious. I felt pretty good coming into the course --- I'd already read the five books in preparation, but Tuesday was one of those days where our professor was ticking off a bunch more "must reads." My list keeps growing! And they all have titles so long, they require a colon in the middle just to so you can take a breath! (Consider this offering: "Announcing Reign of God: Evangelization and the Subversive Memory of Jesus"). I actually am looking forward to diving into that book, and a half dozen more, but when am I going to get to it?

Not everyone is a bibliophile like me (go ahead, look that word up!), but all of as are equally assaulted with what seems like way too much information these days. News from around the entire planet is available 24-7, in a half dozen different media. There are dozens of journals and magazines focusing on every hobby, avocation, special interest, scientific specialty, business interest, and pop culture you can possibly imagine. There's "educational programming" available on PBS, NPR, MNMBC, and the History, Travel, Discovery, and National Geographic Channels. On the Internet you can find absolutely anything. (Go to Google, type in "mating habits of lemmings" or something equally inane and see what happens.) The number of books that are written and printed each year are absolutely mind boggling. (Have you ever been to the Library of Congress?) And then there's information that's really important --- like how to live the Christian life, or the practice of spiritual disciplines, or Christian perspectives on ethical issues, or how God's plan of redemption encompasses and relates to the plurality of religions and worldviews in our shrinking global village. Or just quite simply, What is God like?

King David, who I imagine had more time to think about God than we do, exclaimed,"How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! I try to count them-- they are more than the sand; I come to the end-- I am still with you." Psalm 139:17-18. And the Apostle Paul had a similar thought, when he wrote, "O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!" (Romans 11:33). Obviously there's far more to learn about God and life then our poor little brains can hold, but notice that biblical response. It's not, "May I be excused." It's "I am still with you," and "To him be the glory forever, Amen" (Rom. 11:36).

I have some good news for you about this information overload. First of all, there are some things you don't need to know. Gossip, off-color stories, the useless prattle on TV talk shows, what Rush Limbaugh or Phil Maher or Nina Totenburg think about the Enron, ... just hold up your hand (or press the remote control) and say, "Too much information!" And secondly, it is possible for each of us to know all that God wants us to know. Some of have a bit more or less disk space in our organic hard drives, but God doesn't require more information of us than what we can handle --- and at the same time invites us to stretch our minds far beyond "anything we could think or imagine." And here's the truly amazing thing --- this week, you can learn the most important things there are to learn, just by being with other Christians.

One of the books I read for my class is called "Living Jesus: Learning the Heart of the Gospel." It's one of those deceptively simply, yet deeply profound books, that I probably should read more than once. The author, Luke Timothy Johnson, writes about the "rich and complex ways of coming to learn Jesus." What are they? "Jesus is embodied in the texts that speak of him. Jesus is embodied in the sacraments. Jesus is embodied in the lives of the saints. Jesus is embodied in the little ones of the earth." I realize that anyone of those statements could take a lifetime to unpack, but, trust me, it's not too much information.

Learning to live the love of Christ with you,

Erwin