The Danger of Knowing Too Much and Experiencing Too Little

When Information Produces Pride Instead of Wisdom

Pride is at an all-time high in the day and time that we live in.

We are surrounded by information. Knowledge that once took years to obtain can now be found in seconds. We can search for almost anything, watch someone explain it, listen to experts discuss it, and walk away feeling as though we understand it.

But there is a danger:

Having access to knowledge can make us believe we possess wisdom that only experience can produce.

The Bible gives us a powerful warning:

“Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.” 1 Corinthians 8:1 (KJV)

Knowledge is not bad. Education is not bad. Learning is not bad. In fact, we should spend our entire lives learning.

The danger comes when what we know causes us to stop listening.

Knowledge can fill your head while pride quietly fills your heart.

And when knowledge is separated from humility and experience, it can produce something dangerous: pride and delusion.

You begin believing you understand things you have never experienced.

You know the information, but you haven’t lived the lesson.

The Challenge Facing the Younger Generation

The younger generation faces this challenge perhaps more than any generation before it—not because they are less intelligent, but because they have accumulated access to an extraordinary amount of information.

You don’t even have to practice something anymore to know about it.

You can simply have the information at your disposal.

You can watch videos about marriage without ever being married.

You can study parenting without ever raising a child.

You can listen to podcasts about leadership without ever carrying the responsibility of leading people.

You can study business without ever having employees depending on you to make payroll.

You can watch someone build a house without ever swinging a hammer.

You can study ministry without ever having to stand beside a grieving family.

You can know the terminology without knowing the experience.

And that’s where we must be careful.

Information can give you vocabulary before life gives you understanding.

There was a time when knowledge was often connected to apprenticeship. You learned by sitting beside someone who had done it. You watched them. You practiced. You made mistakes. They corrected you. Then you tried again.

Today, we can sometimes skip that process and go directly to the information.

But information cannot replace formation.

The Boy Who Knew How to Fish

There was a young boy who loved listening to his grandfather talk about fishing.

His grandfather had been fishing for more than fifty years.

When the boy was little, he would sit beside his grandfather and listen carefully.

Grandpa knew the lake.

He knew where the fish went when the temperature changed. He understood what happened when the wind shifted. He knew which bait worked during certain seasons. Sometimes he could look at the sky and know whether they were going to have a good day before they ever put the boat in the water.

The boy admired him.

But then the boy got older.

And he discovered the internet.

He started watching fishing videos.

He followed professional fishermen.

He read articles.

He learned about rods, reels, lines, hooks, lures, water temperatures and fishing techniques.

Before long, something changed.

The boy who used to listen started correcting his grandfather.

One morning Grandpa said,

“Come on, son. Let’s go fishing.”

They got to the lake, and Grandpa started preparing his line.

The boy looked over and said,

“Grandpa, you’re doing that wrong.”

Grandpa smiled.

A little later Grandpa selected a lure.

The boy said,

“You shouldn’t use that lure. I watched a video yesterday that said you should use something different.”

Grandpa smiled again.

They moved farther down the lake.

The boy looked around and said,

“Grandpa, I don’t think we should even be fishing here. The guy I follow online said the fish shouldn’t be in this part of the lake.”

Grandpa finally looked at him.

He smiled and said,

“Son, you’ve learned a whole lot about fishing.”

Then he paused.

“But you haven’t caught a fish yet.”

That morning the boy had more information.

But Grandpa caught the fish.

Eventually, the boy stopped talking.

He put his phone away.

And he started watching his grandfather again.

That’s when his real education began.

Knowing Is Not the Same as Understanding

There are some things you simply cannot fully understand until you have lived through them.

Someone can explain grief to you.

But grief teaches something a definition never could.

Someone can teach you about raising children.

But there are lessons you learn at 2:00 in the morning with a sick child that aren’t written in any parenting book.

Someone can teach you leadership principles.

But leadership changes when people’s livelihoods, families and futures are affected by your decisions.

Someone can explain faith.

But faith becomes different when everything around you says it isn’t going to work and you still have to trust God.

Knowledge tells you what something means.

Experience teaches you what it costs.

And this may help us understand something deeper about the world God allowed humanity to enter.

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Why Did God Allow Good and Evil?

People have wrestled with this question for generations.

Why would God allow humanity to encounter both good and evil?

The Bible presents God as good; evil is not something we should celebrate or call good. But Scripture also presents human beings as having genuine choices and experiencing real consequences.

Think about the Garden of Eden.

God placed Adam and Eve in a beautiful environment, but there was also a command concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

There was a choice.

Without the possibility of disobedience, obedience would not carry the same meaning.

Without choice, love would not function in the same way.

And throughout human experience, we discover something else:

Contrast can teach appreciation.

You don’t fully appreciate light until you’ve experienced darkness.

You don’t appreciate peace the same way until you’ve experienced trouble.

You don’t understand the beauty of good health the same way until you’ve experienced sickness.

You may not appreciate financial stability until you’ve experienced lack.

You don’t fully understand loyalty until you’ve experienced betrayal.

You don’t understand forgiveness until you’ve needed to be forgiven.

And sometimes you don’t understand grace until you realize how desperately you need it.

This doesn’t make evil good.

It means God can take what we experience even painful things and produce wisdom, maturity, compassion and appreciation from it.

Experience Has a Way of Humbling You

When you’re young, sometimes everything looks simple.

Then you live awhile.

Marriage humbles you.

Parenting humbles you.

Business humbles you.

Leadership humbles you.

Ministry humbles you.

Relationships humble you.

Success can humble you.

Failure can certainly humble you.

You eventually discover that some of the people you thought didn’t know what they were talking about actually knew something you hadn’t experienced yet.

That’s why wisdom should produce greater humility, not greater arrogance.

The more you genuinely learn, the more you begin to recognize how much you still don’t know.

The Bible says:

“Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” Proverbs 16:18 (KJV)

One of the most dangerous sentences a person can say is:

“I already know.”

Because the moment you believe you already know everything, you become difficult to teach.

Wisdom says:

“I may know something about this, but there may still be something I need to learn.”

We Need Generations Talking to Each Other Again

The answer isn’t for older generations to criticize younger generations.

And the answer isn’t for younger generations to dismiss older generations as outdated.

We need each other.

Young people possess access to technology, information and new ways of thinking that previous generations never had.

Older generations possess something technology cannot download:

lived experience.

We still need fathers and mothers.

We still need grandfathers and grandmothers.

We still need mentors.

We still need teachers.

We still need pastors and elders.

We need people who have survived some things.

People who made mistakes and learned from them.

People who can tell you not only what worked, but also what didn’t work and why.

There is tremendous power when the knowledge of one generation meets the experience of another.

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Put the Phone Down and Watch Grandpa Fish

Maybe that’s the lesson for all of us.

Sometimes you need to stop searching.

Stop correcting.

Stop trying to demonstrate everything you know.

And simply listen.

There may be somebody sitting beside you who doesn’t know all the newest terminology.

They may not have watched the latest video.

They may not know the newest trend.

But they’ve been fishing that lake for fifty years.

Don’t become so impressed with the information in your hand that you overlook the wisdom sitting beside you.

Knowledge is valuable.

Education is powerful.

Information is necessary.

But none of them eliminate the need for experience, humility and wisdom.

Remember:

Knowledge can fill your mind.
Experience can change your perspective.
Humility allows you to receive correction.
And wisdom teaches you how to use everything you’ve learned.

Never allow what you know to convince you that you no longer need someone who has already been where you’re trying to go.

Knowledge can teach you how to hold the fishing pole.

Experience knows where the fish are.

And sometimes wisdom simply knows when it’s time to stop talking, put the phone down, and watch Grandpa fish.