Nicole and I were so blessed to finally travel to South Africa which has been on our bucket list for a quarter of a century. Although we didn’t get the weather we’d hoped for, Africa did not disappoint. We connected with good friends, enjoyed good food, made new friends and created memories that will last a lifetime. On your return home you discover a lot about your own feelings of what it means to be “home.” The Netherlands is home now and Nicole and I felt such a strong sense of joy and belonging in returning. We are glad to be back.
During my time away I read a statement that has stuck with me, “Everyone has data. Nobody is short on information. What we crave is insight. If data is the sand, insight is the oil we extract from it.” With the smart phone in hand and the internet on demand we can find instant answers via an AI bot that will gather from the immense database of the entire world and deliver it in bite sized portions. It may not be right. It may not be nuanced, but it will continue to spit out data without end as long as you keep asking. Data is cheap. Insight is rare. How do you distill information? How do you know what to trust? How do you know what to apply? This requires insight. The Word of God has it. It’s true for all people, all times and all places. It instructs us as to what is important, what is right, what is good and what is true. Yes, the inventions of man have made information accessible. But only the Word of God can distill information into insight. As I return to the pulpit this week I am so thankful for the Bible. I’m thankful for Trinity Church. I’m thankful that we will gather on Sunday and open the pages of Scripture once again and ask, as brother Rene did this past week, “What does it say? What does it mean? What must I do?”
“Trinity International Church is a safe, welcoming, community of Christ-followers who uphold a high view of Scripture, celebrate unity in diversity and participate fully in the abiding Christian life as described in the Bible. We are united by the principle that in the essentials there should be unity, in all else there should be charity.”
Pastor Dan
