Wisdom Round Three
What does the Book of Proverbs say about wisdom or being wise? When can we say a person is wise, indeed? Here are some pockets of treasures on this subject:
Proverbs 9:10 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."
Wisdom begins when we seek our maker. "For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding." (Prov 2:6)
Prov 13: 10 "Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise."
A wise person is never too proud to seek guidance and advice. As a relational being, man was never designed to live independent of others. He grows in the context of relationships and benefits from the direction of the experienced.
Prov 21: 20 "In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil..."
The wise do not fold their hands and slumber. They work and save for rough times.
Prov 29: 11 "A fool gives full vent to his anger but a wise man keeps himself under control."
Patience, composure and poise... These are are the marks of a man who has learned from life. Ecclesiastes 7:9 says "Do not be quickly provoked in spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools." We know this. Many a man has allowed his passions to overtake him and in the process made a fool of himself.
Prov 13:20 "He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm."
Surround yourself with people who live out their purpose and "spur you toward love and good deeds," not those who just coast along the toss and turns of life's waves. To walk with them is to learn from them. Remember, "bad company corrupts good character."
Seek God.
Listen.
Work and save.
Control your anger.
Learn from people who live, not exist.
The wise do.
It was June 12- a holiday for freedom loving pinoys. I had self-imposed writing projects on my plate. I had to finish my 10 min free-writing regimen (Thanks, Natalie Goldberg), edit (for the hundredth time) the appendices for our second book, update my Lakdang blog, read Stoddard's book on Mentoring and start Phillip Yancey's The Jesus I Never Knew. My To-do-list was overwhelming. Oh, but wait. Wasn't my attention caught a day before by huge tarpaulins at SM which screamed One-day Freedom Sale? And if others were on holiday, why couldn't I be?
I flirted with the idea of putting my projects "on hold" until I was through with my leg and (vision) exercise inside SM. I had to give myself a break for stretching my brain muscles with all the reading and writing the past weeks. I was excited to try on Unica Hija's trendy line especially when I saw SaraG's twinlike pose with Model Charo Ronquillo on their lacy, ultra feminine wear. Couldn't wait to grab the classy peach blouse that would certainly go well with the pair of dark underpants inside my congested closet. Yummy.
I rushed for my morning bathroom routine. Forgetting my ipad, I picked one book from a row of reads on the glass cabinet just beside the marble sink. As I browsed the pages, one line caught my attention:
"Wisdom is the ability to interpret a situation through God's eyes." Wow. So this is a follow-on on where my conversation with my son left off. From a human perspective, wisdom is certainly Greek. It is something we can't fathom,much more apply in our lives.
But how do we "see" with God's eyes?
There is only one way: Get to know Him, through the Living Word - the Word who became flesh 2000 years ago. True wisdom is not of this world. I Cor 3:19 says the wisdom that we know- the wisdom of this world is "foolishness" in God's eyes. I Cor1:25 also says, "For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength."
It took me several days to process these thoughts. God's word pierces. He does have the knack, power and right to frustrate the intelligence of the intelligent. (A brilliant mind does not matter to him;an enlightened, renewed soul does.)
As it is, wisdom calls for a renewing of the mind, an abdication of human perspective. It requires breaking free from the "normal" and popular mode of thinking and a constant wrestling with our human nature. Going over my personal file on Biblical verses I had been recording in 3x5 index cards, I gathered a number of lessons on How God views things, and how His views run opposite to how we mortals see them. Here they are:
1. On judging by looks
"The Lord does not look at what man looks at; man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." (I Samuel 16:17)
"Your beauty should not come from outward appearance... It should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which is of great worth in God's sight."
2. Living in the world
"Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. for anything in the world-the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does comes not from the father but from the world.” (1John 2:15-16)
3. Leadership
"Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave - just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Matt 20: 26-28)
4. Giving
"It is more blessed to give than to receive." (Acts 20:35)
5. Perspective
"But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things- and the things that area not- to nullify the things that are.” (1 Cor 1:27)
God's ways are of a different plane. Looking at things from his point of view requires putting on the mind of the One who came from above - the Lord Jesus Christ. It calls for a radical transformation only he could make. It means being born of the spirit. Our human nature is simply at odds with the spirit. There is no way can we acquire true wisdom without Him who is wisdom personified. No way.
My six year old loves Sunday school. Everytime we meet after his class, he always shows his "works" and the stars stamped on his wrist. He is enthusiastic about his Teacher "Tin" who he says, always calls him Ornic, but he doesn't mine having his name mispronounced. He brings home his activity sheets on various Biblical lessons spruced with different learning activities - coloring, puzzles, activity gaps, mosaic - which kids just enjoy doing for long stretches of time. What is more, I noticed how he has become more prayerful and spirit-filled these days as he takes the lead in praying over meals and before bedtime. Once we are seated for meals, he normally says, "Okay, let us pray first." And on he rattles with requests for blessing.
A day after his usual Sunday school stint, he prayed for something that totally floored me. We were again at the dinner table where he took the lead in saying grace.
"Thank you Lord for the food, for making us healthy and strong. And please, Lord, give me wisdom."
My heart leaped. Wisdom? My little man who only has two permanent teeth, praying that God grant him wisdom? I just learned the word when I got involved in the Campus Ministry in college. Not until I made myself available to the study of the Bible along "with those who called on the Lord out of a pure heart" did I really learn what wisdom meant. I only had a silly understanding of the word - that it is a descriptive word for one special tooth that magically springs when people reach a certain age, say, eighteen years old. Yup, wisdom tooth.
Out of curiosity, I "investigated." I had to know what was working in the mind of my son who, day in and day out, still acts as a young pup always crawling and egging me to scootch him up while he tenderly grunts and whimpers, sniffs me and hugs me with his "paws."
Me: (Lovingly, of course) Son, why did you pray for wisdom? Do you know what it
means?
OrvIK: Yes, Mom. I prayed for wisdom, so I can be wise.
Me: Wow, that's nice. What do you mean by being "wise?"
Orvik: Di ko nga alam eh. (I really don't know.) But I want to obey God, so I can
be wise!
That was it. For Orvik, wisdom is obedience to the great I AM.
That episode spurred me to delve deeper into what wisdom is and what God's Word says about it.
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