Have you ever thought about all the facts of life you have stored away in the grey matter computer resting between your ears? From the womb, your brain has been storing data, even when it cannot make sense of the source.
Let’s see, how did I put it yesterday about my Uncle Henry:
There is no final word to describe Henry today
It would take the World Book Encyclopedia
To begin to tell all he knew and was
Would exhaust the time of days, weeks and months.
The final word. A memorial, obituary, Wikipedia, or even an encyclopedia. Nothing encapsulates the idea of “all I know.”
The problem with knowing a lot, at least in my experience, is learning to filter that knowledge, use what’s needed, and have it available for that moment.
Just because you know anything does not mean you have to share all of it. Learning to control the flow, that’s the key.
Mr. Know-It-All
I had a college professor that admitted we would be drinking from a firehose as he unloaded the Apostle Paul’s view of theology. There would be no way we could glean all the facts he would be sharing. Of course, this was my worst grade in the program. I kept thinking, “This course needs to be multiple courses. From basic to advance, layer on layer, here a little, there a little, Then? Bingo! I’d understand.”
You don’t want to be known as the know-it-all and have people roll their eyes when you opened your mouth.
Not all you know needs to be shared in every conversation. Though some may want it all, as with my college professor I learned a lesson, most can never receive enough to justify your caloric output to share.
“The way President Abraham Lincoln is said to have handled a person who had a know-it-all attitude.
Lincoln asked, “How many legs will a sheep have if you call a tail a leg?”
“Five,” the man answered.
“No,” replied Lincoln, “he’ll still have four, because calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it one.”
~John C. Maxwell,
The 360 Degree Leader: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization
Closing Thought
I love the way the Gospel of John ends.
“And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen.”
(John 21:25, NKJV)
Perhaps the key is to leave everyone wanting more. You don’t have to share it all right now. Let’s allow the knowledge to come to light in its due time.
There’s more I could say. But you get my drift. I’m learning better when to stop sharing.
