I need Wisdom

 

I need wisdom. I need knowledge also.  But I have a reasonable measure of knowledge and I know how to learn. Acquiring knowledge can be difficult but it can be gained by our personal grit and study and with the help of others who know how to point us in the right direction. But gaining wisdom is more difficult. Wisdom is gained through a lifetime of failures and successes and the painful experiences along the way. Even then wisdom will not be fully gained unless we have a desire to learn from our experiences. Wisdom is ultimately acquired when we seek God’s advice and allow His mind to interact with our minds as we journey through life. Proverbs 9:10 says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”. In James 1:5 we read “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him”.

If we are honest, we will all agree that we lack wisdom and thus all of us are in need of wisdom. We understand however that wisdom comes from God and that God is delighted to dispense wisdom to us. Wisdom is available to us when we pray and ask God for insight and understanding and application. We need knowledge but wisdom is far greater because wisdom enables us to practically and properly use the knowledge that we have. Wisdom makes knowledge productive. God desires to be generous in dispensing wisdom to us. God is not harsh but gives generously to all without reproach. This means that God is not looking for flaws within us that would disqualify us from receiving wisdom. God is not looking at our faults to find reasons to not grant us wisdom. If He did none of us would be worthy of God’s gift of wisdom. God desires to lavish us with all the wisdom we need. But we do need to ask God for wisdom and we need to ask God for wisdom believing that God will indeed give us wisdom.

Receiving wisdom from God requires faith. James wrote “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:6-8). Getting wisdom from God requires a focus that is grounded by faith in God. This does not mean that we do not struggle in our faith. God is not asking us to have blind faith. Faith in God is not ignorant of the realities of the world. God is not saying that we must have a faith that does not struggle with doubt. Indeed, that level of faith does not exist in frail humanity. We all struggle in our faith. Faith and doubt are often, maybe usually, mingled together. But faith needs to be dominate in our lives. The world around us is a doubting world tossed about by the wind and the movement of the earth. People who succumb to this kind of doubt are filled with so much duplicity that they are unable to find stability. In that predicament they will never discover God’s gift of wisdom. To have faith means that when the waves of doubt come, we stand firm holding onto to whatever amount of faith we have. It might not be much faith. It may be faith no bigger than a grain of mustard seed. It may be a weak faith that finds us crying out “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief”. But yet it is a faith that is certain of God’s love for us and is committed to fulfill our life’s purpose of serving God. It is a faith to which God will reward an abundance of wisdom.

She Loved Her Country

Teresa Romans and I used to bicker a lot in high school. We bickered mostly about things political. Of course that was about the only thing we ever talked about. We were not enemies but when it came to the rights and roles of government we were foes rather than friends. She was an incessant liberal. I was an ardent conservative. I used to shake my head in dismay that anyone could hold the views she did. I know she thought I was wrong. But I knew she was wrong. She probably felt the same way about me. After high school I had to find someone else to discuss politics with. But I never came across anyone as delightfully ready to argue with me as she was.

A little over three years ago I bumped into her on facebook. She had a different last name but after clicking on a post or two I knew it was her. I sent her a friend request. I wondered if my old foe would accept it but she did. We picked up our bickering where we had left off. I thought maybe life had taught her a thing or two. But she was more confident in her philosophy than ever and her arguments were more honed.  She probably thought I had not changed much either.  Though I am certain my views were somewhat tempered and I was more careful in the way I expressed them. The 2012 election season was upon us and we had fun. Most people do not like politics but Teresa and I loved it. You never won many arguments with Teresa. She rarely (if ever) would concede anything. I tried to straighten her out but she was badly bent. She tried to correct me but I was hopelessly warped. No doubt about it we had opposing political persuasions. Facebook is not a good public forum for political debate. So I tried to express my thoughts in private messages. But sometimes I just could not help myself. She would post something and with a few strokes of the keys I would poke her and prod her with some comment just to see what she would say. I knew full well that she would say something.

I discovered something in the process. Teresa and I had different world views. We had different ideas about what our nation should be involved in. Yet we both had tremendous pride and love for our country. Every now and then we would agree on something.  We would agree on a desired outcome even if we could not agree on the avenue to make it happen. And I think maybe on a different level than politics we became a little closer to friends than foes.

After the 2014 mid-term elections I got a little more interested in basketball than politics. Maybe I was just tired but I started ignoring political debate, especially on facebook. Then a month or so ago I thought to myself “I have not seen any posts by Teresa in the news feeds”. Then I discovered she had died. She had a brain tumor and she went fast. I was saddened. But here is what I know about Teresa. She loved the United States of America. She took advantage of the liberty our nation offers to fully and freely express one’s views. She worked hard to shape our nation and make it a better place. She never missed an opportunity to vote. Teresa and I may not have had much in common. But we were both glad to be citizens of the land of the free and the home of the brave.

 

Success,, Failure, Praise, and Criticism

So much of life we have control over and so much of life we have no control over. Sometimes those most likely to succeed don’t or maybe they could not. Sometimes the least gifted hit upon a good idea or make the right connections and experience success beyond anyone’s dreams. Sometimes we make mistakes that place a damper on all we do for the rest of our lives. Yet some folks can overcome the greatest of mistakes. Sometimes there are accidents and illnesses that limit lives or end lives much too soon. And sometimes the sickest among us manage to live long past the expected three score and ten. Some people are equipped with the best of tools. But sometimes the people who have the best tools are unable to use them. Sometimes they refuse to use them. Sometimes people pick up broken tools and remnants and manage to build something great. Some people can hear hateful words and it rolls of them like water off a ducks back. Other people can hear the same words and they sting the soul and act as a curse forever. Some people can take charge of their lives and some people cannot. I do not understand all of that but such is life. And since that is the way it is we probably need to be a little more reserved in both our praise and in our criticism.

My grandfather Williams was a country preacher. I remember him but I was four years old when he died so obviously I did not him well. Most of what I know about him comes from the stories my mother told me. My mother often quoted an old saying that she had heard from him. “There is so much bad in the best of us and so much good in the worst of us that it hardly behooves any of us to talk about the rest of us”. Sounds like a wise word to me.