"Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
"Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?"
Those lines were penned by a poet, T. S. Eliot, who was overwhelmed with the advancing modern world of information and ever-increasing ease of access to it. He saw that the people of the earth were "ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth" (2 Tim. 3:7). As he further wrote in verse:
"The endless cycle of idea and action,
"Endless invention, endless experiment,
"Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
"Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
"Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.
"All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
"All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
"But nearness to death no nearer to GOD.
"Where is the Life we have lost in living?" (Choruses from the Rock).
These words were published in 1934—almost 100 years ago! If he felt he was drowning in a sea of ever-expanding, useless information back then, we can only imagine how he might feel today. That his words are still relatable to us these many years later indicates that our world has not repented from its course of koyaanisqatsi (Hopi: "life out of balance").
This teaches us that now more than ever before families and individuals who want to successfully wend the wind-tossed waves of worldly wisdom can only do so by clinging to something solid and immovable. For the most part, society has cut itself loose from the solid rock of ages that for so long has proved a sure foundation; and now, at the last hour, souls are not only adrift in the sea of information but a storm has been let loose to churn and break apart all her occupants. Indeed, the enlightened people of this modern world are "led about by Satan, even...as a vessel is tossed about upon the waves, without sail or anchor, or without anything wherewith to steer her; and even as she is, so are they" (Morm. 5:18).
In this time of constant change, I join with ancient prophets in proclaiming the warning voice that Christ and his teachings alone will withstand the storm and provide safe harbor for the soul:
"It is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall" (Hel. 5:12).
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