Google Trends (google.com/trends) is a new section of Google that lets you see what the hottest search words and phrases are. As Google says, "Hot Trends highlights searches which have unexpected spikes in popularity." Many times you can tell what's in the information by looking at what gets searched for. Many times you are just confused!
If you like sometimes peeking into the collective psyche of the world, you may try looking at Google Trends. At the upper end of this range, that turns out to a mean of 5,787 searches... each second! I surely add a couple of numbers to the daily search totals myself.
When the 2 worlds collide, we yield to the fact of God's truth. Our challenge will be to utilize culture when appropriate and to draw a line whenever necessary. This is the tension that genuine Christ-followers have lived with for decades.
Just out of curiosity, I pulled it up for Friday, January 18. Number two: "sheep dash."
In a humbling display of arrogance, Google had the audacity to give me this message:"Your phrases - Ken Hensley - don't have sufficient search volume to show charts." I know my number of internet stalkers is rather low -- at least on January 18.
Add This to your Google Trends!
While Christ-followers will need to know about what is going through our culture, it is also too easy to become caught up inside. The German theologian Karl Barth was asked about what made for good preaching. His response: A Bible in 1 hand and a newspaper in another. To put it differently, effective Christ-followers bridge two worlds -- the world we live in and the world of God.
When they complement each other, there's tremendous synergy. Christians have harnessed the energy of radio waves, television broadcasts, and also the worldwide web. These are not good or poor mediums -- they're neutral advances in culture until harnessed for good or poor. Creating music that is suitable for the times is just another strong example of effectively bridging two worlds.
