Data

“But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.” (John 16:7).

Christ in Glory (Francesco Bassano the Younger)

Recently, I needed to compile a whole lot of research on a topic so that I could formulate some sort of instructions on how to proceed with a job.

Now, this was certainly not the first time that I have done such a thing.  After all, I spent many years at university researching and writing and getting a whole slab of data into a manageable format.  Then, I spent years working in Finance doing much the same thing – but translating it into layman’s terms as well.  And then, I taught for a time and while I was doing that, I was able to get data out of large formats and turn it into information.

The difference between data and information is much like the difference between reading and comprehension.  A person could read pages of text but unless they were able to comprehend those pages and the words on them they would find that there was no point at all in the activity at hand.  It is the same with data.  There is no point at all being presented with hundreds, thousands or even millions of lines of data if we can never put that data together in a manner that actually makes sense to us.

And I have been thinking about that as I have been thinking about the disciples.  When Christ was alive, He preached to them.  He spent years in their company teaching them and talking to them and praying with them and explaining things to them and demonstrating things to them and performing miracles I front of them.  And during that time – for the most part – all of that remained as data to the disciples…  In other words, they saw hundreds and thousands and even millions of signs of Divinity and that Christ was the Messiah.  They even believed all of those signs, and even so, they were unable to understand what it really meant to be the Messiah.  They thought that somehow the Messiah could escape the suffering and death that He experienced.

And I have been reflecting on what it took to arrange that data for the disciples…  After all, Christ repeated Himself again and again and even there – right towards the end He was telling Saint Simon Peter to Get Behind Him…

“But He turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.’” (Matthew 16:23).

And then He suffered and died and Rose from the dead and Ascended into Heaven.  Why?  SO that the data could be turned into information…

“But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.” (John 16:7).

And I have been feeling so grateful for that WISDOM of God.  After all, how could I ever have seen the wisdom of God without such a wonderful blessing as that?  Without the Holy Spirit, everything would still be data to me…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.