Keeping the balance of ABOUT and OF the topic you’re interested in

Throughout the week I skim, scroll, read and listen to a bunch of things rotating around the things I’m interested in.

Theology.

Youth ministry.

Star Wars.

Wrestling.

A week ago I stumbled over this clip on YouTube concerning the Star Wars series The Acolyte and why it was ultimately a failure.

To sum up, in part, the show runner for the show - Leslye Headland - placed the blame on those who spent a lot of time dissected the show and the entire franchise.

And, there’s certainly no shortage of people who make a living, or at least have a platform, expressing their opinions about all things Star Wars. I listen to a few. I have my personal favourites. No doubt, there’s more bloggers, podcasters and Internet creepers than I’ll ever be able to keep track of.

There’s plenty of people yelling into the void of the internet.

Frankly, I’m doing the same thing right now.

But, one element of the response which Leslye Headland made caught my, and the podcasters, attention.

There’s a lot of people who talk ABOUT Star Wars then there is fresh content OF Star Wars.

The same is true of theology.

The same is true of youth ministry.

The same is true of wrestling.

The same is true of… almost everything.

We absorb more ABOUT a topic than we do OF the topic.

Every hour of televised wrestling will have dozens of hours dedicated towards it.

Every week in youth ministry, no matter how long you actually spend in the trenches, will be outmatched by the quantity of content you could consume.

No matter how long you read about theology, there will be more online for you to digest.

All of this is interesting, but not too concerning.

Until it comes to the bible.

This is when the balance of ABOUT and OF matters.

We can easily spend more time scrolling, skimming, reading and listening ABOUT the bible than actually reading the bible.

This is one of the challenges of modern Christianity.

Quantity over experience.

Surface over engagement.

Digital over analogue.

The concern is when what your absorbing ABOUT the bible overtakes what you get out OF the bible.