The Grass Is Always Greener?

I recently read John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. One of the characters, a farmer, was described as being quite content because he was, by contemporary social standards, uneducated. Because of this, he wasn’t distracted, drawn, or enticed by the lure of ‘better things’ outside of his ‘small’ circle of existence (I write with human perspective here). He was, in fact, blessed in the sense that he lived a happy life in his so-called ‘ignorance.’ I suppose, as they say, “Ignorance is bliss,” to some degree, anyway. This farmer was contrasted with the college-educated person of the same era, who was often malcontent, unable to settle into their life, always chasing new ideas - for the more they knew, the more they knew what they didn’t know - knowledge became an exhausting treadmill for the educated person. So, I got to thinking about this and God revealed a couple of thoughts worth sharing with you.

I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind. For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
Solomon, the wisest man of his time, concluded that “he who increases knowledge increases sorrow” (v18). Hold that thought.

Around the same time that I was reading East of Eden, I was giving a lot of thought to what we call the “millennial” generation, or the “millennials,” to be colloquial (also known as “Generation Y”). According to Wikipedia.com, this is the generation of people born between 1981 and 1996 (at the writing of this blog, that group is comprised of 24- to 39-year-olds). One of the hallmarks of the millennials is their lack of excitement about much of anything at all. If you ask them how things are going for them or how they like their job, their home life, their relationships, you will usually receive a lackluster, “meh,” of sorts. I’m generalizing here, I know, but I’m most definitely not alone in my observations. Why are they like this?

The millennials were the first generation to grow up with mainstream, easily obtained access to mobile phones and the Internet. Being from the previous generation, “Generation X,” I know that these technologies were not a part of my childhood or formative teen years. When I was a kid, we had three basic channels on the television, rotary dial phones hanging on the wall, and no Internet - in other words, by comparison, very few modes of advanced communication technology. The millennials were raised in the “Information Age.” As much as most of us herald advances in technology, it has had several ill effects, one of which I’m writing about here. Whether they liked it or not, millennials were overloaded with information on just about every conceivable topic. And, for better or worse, Internet search engines, like Google, made it easier for them to drum up even more data.

One might logically conclude that being “in the know” is always a good thing. So, why is it that the generation with arguably the most data stuffed into its head, suffers from it? To my opening point with the “uneducated farmer” in Steinbeck’s self-described magnum opus, is there blessing in keeping things simple in this lifetime? Can a person cross some arbitrary boundary where more information actually becomes a damaging prospect? Solomon had something to say about this.

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity. Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth. The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd.

My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
I believe we humans have pretty much perverted every possible blessing God has ever given us. Is knowledge a good thing? Well, it depends. Is it good for a surgeon to understand the minutia of the human heart as he’s about to operate on it? Of course. But, is it good for a young person to learn about sex on the Internet from a pornographic ad which popped up while they were doing research for an elementary school project on, say, Horned Toads (aka “horny toads”)? Of course not. Yet, both of these are viable data. What about the amazing teacher in rural Alabama, who’s inspired underprivileged kids for twenty years, who sees an ad describing how private school teachers make three times as much as she does? Or what about the new mom who’s feeling guilty because she just learned from an Internet search that four out of five mothers still breastfeed their newborns, but for some reason she can’t? Or what about the girl who discovers she loves the piano and wishes to be a concert pianist someday, only to see some four-year-old prodigy on YouTube who puts her to shame? Or what about the husband who innocently tries out Facebook only to receive a private message from his high school crush who hints that he’s still got a shot? I could go on and on, so could you. But we haven’t even addressed the reason for this blog yet.

Let’s ponder the person who’s right where God wants them to be while the kingdom of darkness fires a piece of data fashioned into the shape of a “flaming dart” (ala Ephesians 6:16) at them. Maybe said dart has Holy Scripture written on the shaft and flight (the feathers)? Maybe the attack looks innocent enough, but the tip of the dart is poisoned. It’s a subtle trick that Satan’s been playing since he enticed the woman in the Garden of Eden to listen to him. Even the Word of God, taken out of context, can make a person stumble, make them jealous, make them sin. Information, when wrongly injected into the soul, can be devastating.

“The grass is always greener on the other side,” they say. This is a lie, of course, designed to sow discord in the souls of those who buy into it. Satan and the kingdom of darkness propagate this lie in every aspect of living. It’s become increasingly easier due to the advancement of communication technology. After all, it’s easier to spread lies if the lines of communication are faster and broader, right? I mean, the Internet is like having a virtual megaphone that now reaches the ends of the Earth with a single transmission.

I feel sad for the millennials, especially, because before any of us got wise to what was going on, they were ruined by the amount of data they consumed. The result is an apathetic group of people who hardly seem able to escape the “meh.” The good news is that deliverance is totally possible. It’s as Solomon wrote, “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14). The truth is that the grass is greenest where God wants you to be. If you’re going to learn anything, then learn the Word of God. Fear God as a result and learn to enjoy the so-called “narrow” life that Jesus referred to when He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

The grass is not always greener on the other side. In fact, that’s a trap. My advice is to meter your daily intake of data and information. Am I suggesting you maintain a willfully ignorant existence? Not at all. I’m saying that you’d do well to protect your own soul from the onslaught of fiery darts aimed at your heart; some information is better left unknown. To whatever degree you can avoid it, do so. It’s better to remain ignorant in many cases, I say. The most effective strategy is to fill your time with the Word of God. If you’ve got time to read, then read the Bible. If you’ve got time to watch videos, then choose a recording of a godly message. These are superior choices to the alternatives the world offers up for consumption.

It turns out that a smaller, narrower life of so-called “ignorance” is actually the bigger, better choice. Keep it simple. Focus on truth. Enjoy life.

Love in Christ,

Ed Collins