What is wisdom? In the dictionary it is defined as “knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action; sagacity, discernment, or insight, the quality or state of being wise;” So I go further what is wise? Having the power of discerning and judging properly as to what is true or right; possessing discernment, judgment, or discretion, characterized by or showing such power; judicious or prudent: a wise decision.
“”Having the power of discerning and judging properly as to what is true or right”” …. Wow! We are wise when we hit 16 aren’t we. Or at least we think we are wise. I know I have a 19 year old son and he believes he knows it all. He believes he is invincible and can escape anything, anywhere. Is he wise? I don’t think so.
My mother is 88 years old. She has seen many moons as the natives would say. Her years of experience and life have given her lines and wrinkles of wisdom beyond any other woman of lesser age. She has seen much pain and elation. But is she wise? I suppose so.
A mother who has a child with an emotional disorder or disease and has been diagnosed with further disorders of impaired communication and emotional detachment. The child is turning 16 on his next birthday …. Still maintains the educated and learnings of a 4 year old. Is this mother wise? I am sure she is.
A young teenage girl is invited to share in a case of beer with some friends and she opts out. Is this wisdom or common sense or fear?
Wisdom pokes its head out of the sand in a variety of ways. We can be so wise in some ways and so un-wise in others. Decision making depends on wisdom. How does one measure their wisdom? Who is wisest? Is there a university course that I can take that will make me a wisdom graduate? Can I secure a bachelor’s degree: Gerontology and Wisdom? Knowledge is not wisdom. My professor this week had a quote on the board … “Knowledge is the booby prize of life; a sense of mystery and awe is the big prize.” Dr. Fred Alan Wolfe – God is this mystery and awe ….
Wisdom is life’s lessons in reality. As I broke down the verses in Proverbs 8 and reviewed the content it made me think.
“Listen! Wisdom is calling out. Reason is making herself heard.” Wisdom calls to us daily. I know in my day to day reasoning I hear wisdom talking to me. But do I listen? Most recently, I had a love interest. A nice fellow who was interested in dating me. I don’t date much because I am so busy with school right now and my focus needs to be clear. Wisdom and reason was telling me not to go there but did I listen? No, I heard my heart and let my heart rule. No good can come of that, and it didn’t. As I talked about last week our spirit is our guide. The Holy Spirit that God has placed in our centre, to guide and lead us along. The spirit talks to us and we need to listen. It is our wisdom. The heart, the mind, and the soul can act on their own behalf but usually are not good decision makers. It is the wisdom of our spirit that is God’s voice inside of us.
“On the hilltops near the road… at the crossroads … at the entrance to the city … beside the gates….” Wisdom is all around us, so why do we ignore it? Wisdom can be a hard pill to swallow. We as people hear the voice of wisdom, if we listen it speaks very clearly to us. Wisdom can guide us and direct us but we think we know better so ignore the voice and go our own way. This is when God cries, as God is Wisdom. Wisdom is the spirit telling us our journey and as much as we realize this, we still maintain we know the way. Making poor choices; speaking out in anger; material desires; earthly wishes; greed; distorted view of “riches”.
We have a study group at St. Andrew’s in Coldwater. It is a series of DVD’s produced by Rob Bell, the founding pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in the US ~~ his forward thinking theology and practices are inviting. The DVD’s are about 16 minutes in duration and give food for thought and provoke discussion. This week we watched “Rich” and Rob talks about how we take for granted our “rich” life. He reminds us that this distorted view of “rich” is not healthy and how God talks to us through the bible to remember where the richness lies. It lies in wisdom and choices in God.
The serenity prayer is one used by the well known organization AA …. “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.” There have been many folk who recite that prayer each and every time they attend a meeting. It is the opening credits so to speak. It is their mantra. Can we discern what we can change and what we can’t? I know from personal experience that I have chosen incorrectly many times and paid the price for that free-will decision. My heart has been broken, my soul has been wounded. In my gut wisdom was talking to me but I still walked away from it. Didn’t trust God enough to step back and turn away. When we take it upon ourselves to make the decisions it is like we are saying we don’t trust God. When we are down and out we turn to God for help but in the day to day living we think we know best. Is that wise?
Vs 3 of Proverbs 8 reads “Are you immature? Learn to be mature. Are you foolish? Learn to have sense.” Further down it reads “What I say is the truth; lies are hateful to me. Everything I say is true; nothing is false or misleading:” These words are so powerful and should we adopt them as our daily mantra how could we go wrong? Maturity comes with age some say. I believe maturity comes with understanding yourself and listening to your spirit. God plants in us the ability to know by the time we are five the basics of life. We have the tools to manipulate and bargain about the same time as we learn to walk. Our basic instincts are to love and be loved but it is our environment and our teaching that taint these instincts.
I want to relate to you a story a story of a young woman who had been raised and nurtured in a church and was taken to church every single Sunday while growing up. Her dad would call from the bottom of the stairs each Sunday morning, “come on now, get up for church.” Her dad taught her Sunday school each Sunday for a period of time and one of the lessons was memorizing the books of the New Testament. She did that. She could recite them by name in proper order. But she understood nothing of God or Jesus or what this whole world was about. Who was God? What did Jesus represent? In this religion they practiced adult baptism. One Sunday when she was 12 her mother told her, “your cousin is being baptized this Sunday you may as well get it over with.” So obediently she simply did what she was told, and asked no questions. It was going to glorious to be the centre of attention at church. At the end of that Sunday service the girl and her cousin walked to the front of the church there were some questions and then they were whisked off to another church which had a baptismal tub; big enough for full emersion, and she was dunked. I feel sorry for this child as she had no idea what it was all about. She didn’t understand what the baptism meant or the significance of it. She didn’t understand why she had to do it that particular Sunday or the concept of “getting it over with”. She carried these questions for years.
Most recently, a week ago to be exact, she was sitting at the table with her 88 year old mother and they were discussing the christening (infant baptism) of one of the children in the family. The mother’s response was “poor little thing; what sins could she have committed that she would need to be baptized? Baptism is to wash away your sins, and the bible says it should be done as an adult.” The girl looked at the mother and said, “what sins had I committed then when I was 12?” There was silence … then mother dismissed it and wouldn’t talk any further, because she had no answers.
This young girl is me. I still have questions around my baptism and I believe I have gained the wisdom from this to be more understanding and astute. I have forgiven my mother for so much over the years as she just didn’t know. She practiced one of the Toltec agreements being “always do your best”. That was the best she could offer me, the boundaries of her wisdom which had been carved out, imprinted on her soul, stamped by the teachings of her parents. I have surpassed the teachings and learned behaviors of my upbringing and have come to terms with so many emotional renderings of my childhood. This to me is wisdom. This to me is reason. This to me is understanding and maturity, when we can forgive and see the flaws in the people around us. Forgive past hurts in our lives and let the one who has hurt go. We carry these burdens, not the person who inflicted it on us. People do not want to dig into their past but your past is your present and will be your future should you choose to ignore it.
“Once there were two monks who were traveling through the countryside during the rainy season. Rounding the bend in the path, they found a muddy stream blocking their way. Beside it stood a lovely woman dressed in flowing robes. Here, said the one monk, let me carry you across the water. He picked her up and carried her. After setting down on the far bank he walked in silence with his fellow monk to the abbey on the hill. Later that evening the other monk said suddenly … I think you made an error when you picked up that woman on our journey today. You know we are not supposed to have anything to do with women and you held on close to you! You should not have done that … “How strange” remarked the first monk .. I carried her only across the water you are carrying her still …!” This is a story from one of my text books “Transitions; making sense of life’s changes. It is reminding us that we “carry” baggage forward in our lives and it can only get heavier and heavier with time. It also reminds us that we are the only ones who can let it go and that it is personal. Wisdom allows us to come to terms and release it to lighten our load and make room for God’s guidance and love.
John 16; vs 12 – 15 focuses on how much we are able to absorb or learn at a time. Vs 12 reads “I have much more to tell you, but now it would be too much for you to bear….” Wisdom teaches us too that we can only progress so fast. We can only do so much, and it is in this knowledge that we find hope. Hope for the future, hope for new beginnings and hope for salvation in our soul. Hope is all encompassing and is the sunshine of our being. Without hope what would we be? Without hope where would we be? Hope is defined as the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best; to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence. Isn’t that great! Hope is the centre. Hope is crucial to our existence. Without hope there is no use for wisdom or reason. My father taught me hope, he lived his life believing the Lord Jesus Christ was his saviour and never faltered, that was an ultimate hope that I could take to the bank of my spirit. His conviction and purpose and his life was my anchor, as he instilled in me hope.
Romans 5: 1-5 talks about being “right with God”, being “put right with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” Jesus set the example and we strive to live up to that example and as we do we gain wisdom and reason and understanding and we learn about ourselves. That is what God expects of us, to be wise and reasonable. Being gentle with ourselves and others as we journey through this existence here on earth; being reasonable that mistakes will be made and wisdom is not always our guide. Understanding people do the best they can with what they have to work with and that we can harbour resentment, or carry pain, or lash out in bitterness or we can resonate back indulgence as we process day to day living with our own wisdom and God’s guidance of our spirit.
Who do you have in your life that you can share your wisdom with? Think to yourself where you may have been mindful or heartfelt instead of using wisdom. Pray to God to help you process and release pain or hurt that is holding you back from feeling hope and optimism. That is the glory of God. That is the freedom of wisdom. That is the message of Jesus, love; understanding and truth. Verses 3 – 5 of Romans 5 says this, “We also boast of our troubles, because we know that trouble produces endurance, endurance brings God’s approval, and this approval creates hope. This hope does not disappoint us, for God has poured out love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit, who is God’s gift to us.” What more could we look for than that!
In closing, I just want to assure you that God walks the walk and talks the talk, if we just listen. That little girl who was baptized at 12 for whatever reason still doesn’t understand but she doesn’t need to because she has found hope and love in the spirit of God within her and forgives these minute details, because in the wonderful universe of God’s love details like this are nothing more than a dot on a radar screen. The size of that dot on our radar screen is up to us …. Listen to God, bring forth your wisdom and hope for a spiritual future which will bring you peace and happiness.
