"Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech: “How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you.” -- Proverbs 1:20-23
When we fear God and nothing else, we discover the freedom to pursue great adventure.
God calls us to lives that cannot be lived without wisdom. While many of us long for God to give us a map so that we can simply follow it, He instead gives us a compass that points us to the way. What we continually ask for is to know God’s will for our lives; what God continually offers us is His wisdom for our lives. So critical is wisdom to the journey that God offers it as a gift to all who would desire it [James 1:5]. The heart of a fool is motivated by personal gain. The heart of wisdom is motivated by the good of others. While wisdom does not always guarantee a life of riches and honor, wisdom always produces a rich and honorable life.
Wisdom creates and produces good. Wisdom not only sees the good that must be done now, but it also catalyzes such events that result in good fortune. Wherever wisdom flows, good follows. Not everything that happens to those of us who live wisely is good, but everything that happens from those of us who live wisely is good. This doesn’t mean that walking in wisdom is painless, no far from it, but the ultimate results that flow from wisdom are health, freedom and creativity.
We can be highly educated and also be wise, but it is certainly not a given. We can be uneducated from a conventional standard and still be people of great wisdom. The converse is also true. We can accomplish great things in the academic world and live lives of foolishness.
Wisdom always finds a way through the messes we make of our lives. It doesn’t always find the easiest way, but the way marked by the footprints of God. Wisdom is the product of sacred imagination. Wisdom knows the way to true freedom. Where there is wisdom there is always hope! Wisdom simplifies. Wisdom clarifies. Wisdom untangles. Wisdom unshackles. Wisdom illuminates. Wisdom liberates. In the end, wisdom enlightens us to live lives of nobility.
Wisdom is more than simply being able to see beyond ourselves, but perhaps even more profoundly, to see within ourselves. Wisdom is the ability to cut to the core of complex issues. Wisdom not only allows us to move beyond living senseless lives; it helps us begin to make sense of our lives. The fool acts without reflection; the wise man reflects on his actions.
Wisdom becomes the ability to see choice as cause and consequence and benefit as effect. When we see our circumstances as isolated from our actions, we abdicate personal responsibility for our lives. Taken to an extreme, we hold God accountable for the consequences of our actions and can easily become embittered toward Him. It is as if we want the freedom to make choices but expect God to make certain that we do not have live with the consequences of our choices. At other times we would rather believe in luck than in responsibility, but superstition is nothing more than an improper connection between cause and effect. When we disconnect our circumstances from our choices, we choose to live powerless lives. When we embrace the interconnection between our present decisions and our future opportunities, we regain the power to set our course and to shape our journey. A proper view of cause and effect grows us in wisdom and brings greater freedom to our lives.
Wisdom refuses to surrender the freedom of the future for a temporary indulgence. Wisdom recognizes that while some opportunities are captivating, beneath the surface they are ready to take us captive. Wisdom recognizes that the inseparable relationship between cause and effect are more than a natural phenomenon, it is a spiritual reality.
“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” – Galatians 6:7-10
Whether the language is sowing and reaping, cause and effect, a contemporary understanding of good and bad karma, or simply understanding that what goes around comes around, wisdom begins at connecting the dots between the quality of our decisions and the quality of our lives.
-- To be continued --
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