What Good is Knowledge?

“…whenever there is intellectual assent without corresponding action, there is spiritual dullness. God intellectually accepted without response in obedience, fades away from the immediateness of consciousness.” G. Campbell Morgan

What that says to me is we can “learn” things. Accept them into our mind – sometimes I call it being “book smart” but if we never put it into practice what does it matter?  I believe this pertains to all of life. I thought of this quote as I ran yesterday after work. I was tired and had a long list of things that needed done. However I had not run the day before and it’s only 2 1/2 weeks till my first 5K so it’s no time to let up.  I felt like a slug. That’s the exact thought that went through my head as I “ran”. It felt more like plowing through mud. My feet were heavy and I was sure I wasn’t moving any faster than a turtle. However between the music in my ears I just kept rehearsing every thing I know about exercise being good for you. In my conversation with myself I thought I needed to put in to practice what I know to be true medically. Exercise on a regular basis strengthens you and generally helps you avoid illness. I’d like to say since I’ve been exercising pretty regularly over the winter I’ve lost a ton of weight and inches. The truth is, I have not. I lost the initial bit of weight I put on that put me in a panic. That’s good. I also have not gained the insidious 2-3 pounds most of us put on every year. That is also good. The at least 5 and really 10 pounds I’d like to lose, I have not. But I wonder where I would be if I wasn’t trying. Probably in a larger pant size.  The moral to this story – my knowledge of exercise and health when put to practice is keeping me from gaining weight. That is a good thing.

The “other” moral to this story is knowledge in and of itself doesn’t really help anything unless we put it into practice. What knowledge do you have that you are not using in your own life?