WISDOM – ITS OFFENSE AND COST

Wisdom is a matter of seeing reality as it is and acting accordingly. The benefits of wisdom (having accurate feedback) should be apparent. If we don’t have accurate sensory feedback, we will crash. When we don’t have a proper understanding of anything we manage we will also crash, whether it’s a matter of brushing our teeth, eating healthful food, or even washing our cloths. Whatever we are to manage successfully, we first have to understand.

This requires some degree of self-examination. When it became apparent to me that I couldn’t read the blackboard, my parents took me to get glasses, and this resolved the problem. I found that reading better enabled me to perform better.

This also pertains to relationships. I had been noticing that something was amiss. Others were not responding to me in a positive way. With a little self-examination, I began to notice that I had a pattern of challenging and antagonizing friends and acquaintances. After I modified my behaviors, I began to see improvements. However, this required a deeper level of self-examination than merely taking stock of my blurred vision. Instead, I had to confront the fact that I had been at fault.

The benefits of wisdom are undeniable. Therefore, the Bible teaches a lot about the road to wisdom and self-examination:

·       A scoffer seeks wisdom in vain, but knowledge is easy for a man of understanding…The wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way, but the folly of fools is deceiving…The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps. (Proverbs 14:6, 8, 15)

Why does the “scoffer seek wisdom in vain?” The answer seems to reside in the fact that the scoffer is not self-examining, but why not, especially if wisdom is needful?

The commitment to wisdom costs everything and has to head our wish-list:

·       …if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will…find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity. (Proverbs 2:3-7)

Wisdom and truth have to take precedence of all else. (Valuing wisdom and truth is inseparable from valuing God.) However, they seldom do. I needed a set of glasses to perform well as a student. We too require a set of glasses to perform well spiritually and interpersonally. However, to see with a new set of glasses is to see that we have been wrong in many ways. Instead, we prefer to believe that we are right and others are wrong:

·       Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart. (Proverbs 21:2)

We would rather be right in our own eyes than to think accurately. Why? It’s just too painful to see ourselves as we truly are. Instead, we bathe ourselves in positive affirmations and the approval of others, even at the cost of truth and wisdom. We would rather be arrogant than accurate, feel good than to think good.

Besides, when we refuse to see ourselves accurately, our skewed vision prevents us from seeing others and life itself accurately. Jesus had explained that this refusal condemns us:

·       “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.” (John 3:19-20)

I had been a lover of the darkness. I fed on the lies of positive affirmations. However, each of these left me more alienated from myself and from others. I was looking them to feed my inflated ego, but there were no takers, just silence from a distant side of an impassible chasm. I thank my Savior for painfully dragging me into the light.