I was up at 4:00am this morning, head spinning. I'd love to say it was spinning in some productive way...but nope. Just general awakeness. I came downstairs and did one of those "Bible dip" things Barbara Kingsolver describes in one of her books, opening the Bible at random. I landed in the first chapter of Proverbs, reading an exhortation to "Get Wisdom." It was 4:00am. I wasn't sure the wisdom store was open yet.We're all on a quest for wisdom in one way or another. Whether it's cookbooks teaching us how to caramelize onions without scalding them, or craft magazines leading us through 114 steps to the perfectly decorated July 4th celebration. I'm regularly astonished by how one local news station here runs 30 second spots about how their "BREAKING EXCLUSIVE STORY" will provide key information so their viewers will never again be duped by medical fraud, fast food caloric overload, or (in the most memorable of these strange segments) moldy cheese.
Confession: it's going to take more than crafts and cheese safety tips to get me through. Wisdom has got to mean more than that--Proverbs backs me up on this, saying it's the most important thing we can get, worth more than gold, silver, or rubies--but for the life of me I can't pin down what it is. What does it look like, and how do you know when you have it? (A Google image search turns up this picture of Clint Eastwood, along with some truly gross pictures of people in the midst of dental surgery...) Perhaps wisdom is inherently elusive, like the pornography famously described by Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, who essentially gave up, saying "I shall not today attempt further to define [what] I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it." Is there any more hope to be had for us in ascertaining wisdom in some way that feels more certain? I'm not sure. I hope so. I guess I'm looking to the antidote to yesterday's tongue-in-cheek mediation on "The Suchness of Is" (a sentence that still makes me giggle, 48 hours later...)
Where do you see wisdom? Where do you look? Is there anyone in particular who inspires you particularly in this area?
6 comments:
hmm probably my parents. I have a few friends who are really the quiet types so whenever they say ANYTHING it sounds wise but isn't necessarily so.
Wisdom? Sound and practical advice from parents (and grandparents when I was a child), then learning from experience.
For the past week, I've been hungry for wisdom (not to mention hope) about some things. Then I realized, pretty much every day I get a sense about something, and I think this is God's wisdom. When this revelation runs along some particular theme, or is backed up by something I read or hear, I'm able to trust it more. I also notice if I don't do something helpful like reach out (pray, talk to friends, read) and choose despair, it's not pretty.
My brother and I were just talking the other day about how our grandfather is still very prominent in our minds as a model of a wise and loving person for us, even though it's been nine years since he passed away.
Something in Kim's comment - about getting a sense - made me wonder if I have enough quiet / down time to receive wisdom. Or is there too much "noise" in my life, drowning out the still, small voices that God could be using to communicate? Am I missing deep wisdom because I'm running too fast and staying surface-y, looking for quick sound bites and easy-to-digest messages? Just something I want to think about.
I feel wisdom becomes clear to me in different ways. For example, this week I have been wondering why Wisdom chapters in Proverbs keep popping up for me to read on a bible website. My bible dip kept leading me there. Now I'm realizing I'm not the only one being led this way. This is one way (seeing a pattern in the world around me) I feel I get wisdom.
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