Wisdom- That Jewel Most Precious

It comes as no surprise to me that Wisdom in the Bible takes the form of a woman.  And so does Folly, before I start a gender war on my peaceful little blog. But God’s got me thinking a lot about Wisdom lately, and I am taking to a blog post to try and articulate my confused thoughts.

It all started with this verse in the Bible:

“ And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever."

(1 Chronicles 28 :9)

I was immediately struck by this verse. What is my motive in serving God? My motive is simple: I want to know God intimately and obey all his commands. I want to walk hand-in-hand with him in my journey through the sands of Life.

And to walk through this journey in a manner that pleases God, I need Wisdom. The realization came to me as I reflected on that famous prayer of Solomon’s, where he asks God for wisdom, and God grants it.  It was also no surprise that my pastors at church began a sermon series on Proverbs, and that the first proverbs are exhortations to seek Wisdom. Consider these compelling verses from the man said to be the wisest on earth:

Proverbs 2

Moral Benefits of Wisdom

 ¹ My son, if you accept my words
       and store up my commands within you,

 ² turning your ear to wisdom
       and applying your heart to understanding,

 ³ and if you call out for insight
       and cry aloud for understanding,

 ⁴ and if you look for it as for silver
       and search for it as for hidden treasure,

 ⁵ then you will understand the fear of the LORD
       and find the knowledge of God.

 ⁶ For the LORD gives wisdom,
       and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

And later on in the chapter Solomon goes on to add, “ Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her."

With all due respect to myself, I never thought that wisdom was for me. After all I’m the most scatterbrained, most irresponsible, most impulsive person I know. Sometimes I feel that I have such a long way to go, and I just want to lie down and give up.

These past few weeks, however, I’ve been feeling God steering me gently towards the topic of wisdom. I can hear Him say, “ Look at it again. Why do you think you can never be wise? You can never be a true Christian without wisdom.”

I was amazed to hear this. I hadn't given wisdom much thought before. I had merely assumed it was for the elderly and the experienced; two categories I do not fall into, and therefore I didn’t think I could be described as wise. But why can’t I be? Wisdom is a desirable thing, as evinced by the Proverbs.

I am not talking about worldly wisdom by the way. Wordly wisdom seems to me another word for knowledge, how many facts one can cram into his or her brain until said brain is ready to explode. What I am talking about is wisdom from God, wisdom to live in this world while remaining a shining light for him. As Proverbs 2:6 says, God is the giver of wisdom. And without His wisdom, I am convinced I can never be a truly fruitful follower of Christ. Not to mention a rather ineffective missionary. Every Christian needs wisdom in their walk with God. This metaphor of a journey is again played out in Proverbs 4: 11

“ I guide you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths.”

So how do I go about acquiring wisdom? As I pondered this, windows began opening in certain dark areas of my mind, windows that I’d previously been too afraid or too lazy to open. I realized that I was in danger of becoming too contented with myself. There were still areas I needed to clean and dust up, bits of my life that were tarnishing and falling into disarray. I began evaluating these areas and deciding what God would want me to do about them.  Here are some of the earth-shattering decisions I made:

1.      I resolved to help about in the house more. Both my mother and I work full-time in the summer, but I noticed my mother was doing more housework than I was. My job is not as stressful as hers, and plus I’m younger and therefore supposed to have boundless energy.
2.     Not to spend as much time on the Internet as possible. It’s all too easy to come back home exhausted from work and vegetate immediately before the ‘Net. I resolved to go back to good old fashioned reading and sneak in some time to do crafts.
3.      I planned to spend as much time with God as possible. As Dallas Willard says in his book “ Hearing God,” the point of communication with God is that we end up in communion with Him. I want to be as deeply in communion with God as I can possibly be. Instead of wasting my time on useless dreams, I try to talk with God silently in my head as much as possible, praying for people I come across, and praying for all my friends and family. It’s not easy, especially because we tend to be so self-centered, but practice makes perfect so they say, and I’m hopeful that I will improve after a while.
4.       Curb my shopaholic tendencies! I’d previously read “The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic,” and had laughed my head off, inwardly thanking my stars that I wasn’t a materialistic spendthrift like the heroine. Unfortunately, when I got my first job I realized how hard it is not to spend. Currently I’m trying not to buy anything until school starts. I need to learn how to save!

Perhaps it’s not so surprising how a meditation on wisdom led me to make these lifestyle changes. After all, surely it’s wiser to act than to remain meditating, right? I felt that God wanted me to make these changes, and by way of the topic of Wisdom, had shown me the bright red glaring errors I’d been subconsciously (and lazily) making.

Honestly, the more I think about wisdom, the more I realize that it is as essential to the Christian life as water is to a tree. Without the nourishment of wisdom we cannot grow into strong and fruitful plants. It is wisdom that helps us penetrate to the deepest depths and helps us appreciate with purity and clarity the soul-stirring love and the breath-taking majesty of God. Without wisdom we would not even be scratching the surface; our understanding and appreciation of God’s love would be shallow and farcical, nothing better than a faint apprehension.

That is why I want wisdom, and the maturity that comes with wisdom, to walk hand-in-hand with me as I journey through the adventurous paths of a Christian life.