Wisdm: A Key to Life
I was recently asked a thoughtful question: What is wisdom? Answering that question did not come quickly or easily. I would have struggled less with the question: What is knowledge? After all, knowledge is . . . well, it’s knowing things; information, concepts, facts, theories, data, events, truths. Knowledge you can quickly find in books or other forms of media. Want to know a date, how to repair your toilet, prepare a tasty lasagna or discover the distance from here to the moon? Simply look it up on any number of media sites.
Wisdom is an entirely different thing.
You cannot simply ask, “Hey Siri”
when it comes to seeking wisdom
for a particular decision or action.
Yet the Scriptures are quite clear
when it comes to the importance a
nd value of wisdom. As Solomon
instructs us, we are to “Seek wisdom”
which he reminds us is worth more
than gold or silver (see Proverbs 2:1-5).
And we are to make it a priority and
pursue our effort with an earnest heart (see Proverbs 1:28).
Wisdom: How Can We Best Seek Her?
That instruction, however, begs these questions: What is wisdom and how can we best seek her? As I wrestled with those questions and engaged in some research, I came across a quote that caught my attention and seemed a good answer to the first question: What is wisdom? Ponder this definition by Edward Porter Humphrey for a moment and see if it provides a place to begin the conversation.
“True wisdom is to know what is best worth knowing and to do what is best worth doing.”
To me, it seems a good place to start.
In his commentary on the Old Testament book of Proverbs, Derek Kidner reminds us of why this portion of the Scriptures should play a significant role in our understanding of how best to reflect God’s Truth to a broken world. I am quoting at length from Kidner’s commentary because I believe he best captures the essence of why wisdom matters and how it should impact our daily thoughts and actions.
Proverbs is not a portrait-album or a book of manners: it offers a key to life. The samples of behavior which it holds up to view are all assessed by a criterion, which could be summed up in the question: ‘Is this wisdom or folly?’ This is a unifying approach to life, because it suits the most commonplace realms as fully as the most exalted. Wisdom leaves its signature on anything well-made or well-judged, from an apt remark to the universe itself, from a shrewd policy (which springs from practical insight) to a noble action (which presupposes moral and spiritual discernment). In other words, it is equally at home in the realms of nature and art, of ethics and politics, to mention no others, and forms a single basis of judgment for them all.
Seeking Control and Establishing Agendas
I’d like to see much more wisdom driving our political thinking, for example. Wouldn’t you? Sadly, however, I observe little wisdom in the realm of current politics. Rather I see a world that is driven by a desire to obtain and maintain power or one focused on the pursuit of a particular agenda. In such quests pragmatic considerations rather than wisdom typically control decisions and actions. In one sense that is understandable because politics has, and will always be, about seeking control and establishing agendas. That is why seeking answers to difficult situations through politics is often destined to end badly.
More problematic, at least for me, is how often the pursuit of wisdom, as Kidner describes it, is often absent in the realms of family and church. Far too often in the family our greatest energy is invested in the pursuit of financial security; a comfortable home, an impressive mode of transportation, regular vacations to exotic locations, and the best education for our children so that they can achieve what Dr. Steven Garber calls “the passport to privilege”. Those aren’t necessarily bad things: they just don’t put us on the road to the best things.
Biblically Shaped Followers
Likewise, I believe that the church could do a better job of providing its members a blueprint on how best to seek wisdom in order to live more biblically in the world we inhabit. We don’t lack for Scriptural direction for how to live wisely. We do, however, seem to lack thoughtful exploration and instruction of those Scriptures. What, for example, should biblically shape followers of Christ as they think about how to vote, educate their children, pursue a vocation, consider their responsibility as not only stewards of God’s creation but of their time and resources, respond to the influence and impact of media, decide how best to respond to the “next new thing” that pops up on the cultural landscape or many of the challenges that arise over the course of life?
There is no end to the litany of challenges to which we are called to respond, no end of dilemmas we must navigate, no shortage of difficult decisions we are called to make. Without the wisdom that only comes from knowing the mind of Christ, it will be difficult to take actions that are most worthy of the follower of Christ.
The Ultimate Prize
If, therefore, wisdom is so crucial to a life that most accurately reflects our Lord, how can we best seek wisdom as Solomon instructs us and our Lord expects of us? Let me begin to answer that question with another insight from Derek Kidner. In his commentary he writes,
If we could analyze the influences that build up a godly character to maturity, we might well find that the agencies which we call natural vastly outweighed those that we call supernatural.
Now before you object to that observation consider what Kidner says next.
The book of Proverbs reassures us that this, if it is true, is no reflection on the efficiency of God’s grace; for the hard facts of life, which knock some of the nonsense out of us, are God’s facts and His appointed school of character; they are not alternatives to His grace, but the means of it; for everything is of grace, from the power to know to the power to obey.
Next Kidner makes a hugely important observation that we must not miss as we pursue the discovery of wisdom.
Yet while all go to God’s school, few learn wisdom there for the knowledge which He aims to instill is the knowledge of Himself; and this, too, is the ultimate prize (emphasis mine). In submission to His authority and majesty (that is, in the fear of the Lord) we alone start and continue our education; and by the diligent search for wisdom ‘as hidden treasures’ we shall find our prize in a growing intimacy with the same Lord. He is the beginning; He is also the end; for the goal is: “Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God” (Proverbs 2:5).
There is no short cut to wisdom and only those willing to make the effort, to pay the price, to persist in the face of trial and adversity while seeking His heart and mind will find the true wisdom essential if we are to navigate life “under the sun”. This is no journey for those seeking a life of ease. It is the only journey worth pursuing, however, if your desire is to know Him and to know what is best worth knowing and best worth doing.
My prayer is that you will be willing to undertake that journey and enroll in His appointed school of character which can only be obtained as you grow in His wisdom and grace.
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