It’s All About the Withouts

Day #10

I was listening to a podcast the other day when they played a snippet of a comedian talking about how Google has ruined us.

The ability to access information in seconds 

at all times has made us no smarter.

But worse than that, it has robbed us of anticipation.

There is something sweet in the not knowing of something that you’d love to know.

The,

“What is the name of this song I keep humming?”

Or

“Where did that one guy from that one band grow up?”

Or

“How many licks does it take to get 

to the center of a Tootsie Pop?”

Shazam, Google and Siri have ruined all that for us.

I’m not saying ignorance should be celebrated or knowledge rejected

but there is something exciting about 

the build-up of anticipation
in the not knowing.

Maybe it’s your go-to question at dinner parties,

“Hey, I’ve got this song stuck in my head, do you know what it is?"

Maybe you laugh about that tune with your spouse and wonder if you’ve just made it up.

Then one day, years later, you hear that song.

 You’ve been humming it for years.

It’s on the radio and you turn up the volume, in breathless excitement of the radio host to announce the song.

And they do!

You can’t wait to call your spouse to tell them that it was real.

The song you’ve been humming for years wasn't made up, 

it’s a real actual song that is out there in the world.

Answers are like that.

Real and actual and out there in the world

but sometimes acquiring them right away 

doesn’t give us a hard-earned story.

A lesson.

The long period of “without” didn’t make the acquisition less sweet.

It created in us a place,

a stored-away place of longing,

until that answer was presented to us.

Oh, we still will desire the knowledge.

It will gnaw at us.

Maybe even keep us up some nights.

But if we’d gotten the answer immediately we might not even be able to recall what it was we were asking in the first place.

We’d just receive it and move on.

I heard Beth Moore talk about this in a bible study.

There are lots of withouts in the scriptures--especially in Genesis.

The earth was without form and void.

She said that there is something good in the without because it means something is coming.

The earth was without form but form was coming.

Adam was without a suitable mate.

But Eve was coming.

The world was without a messiah.

But Jesus was coming.

We live in a day and age where we don’t ever get the satisfaction of finding something out over time.

Information is instant and therefore, sometimes, sadly, meaningless.

And with answers so much bigger than 

the name of a song stuck in our head.

We were created to be without.

There’s something about the longing that builds in the without that makes waiting so. much. better.

It means something is coming.