THE STRENGTH AND CONFIDENCE OF WISDOM

One superlative gift of God is wisdom and understanding. Having this gives us strength and confidence to navigate this life:

·       A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might. (Proverbs 24:5 ESV)

How can it be that the wise also have strength and might? Well, for one thing, the wise trust in the Lord and in His Word, a source of great guidance and certainty, an accurate roadmap, which gives us the clarity to navigate the crooked paths of distorted lives.

For this reason, I enjoyed being a probation officer in the NYC Department of Probation. This is because God’s wisdom taught me how to talk to others in a way that they could understand and benefit. Because I was confident in this wisdom, it was a tool I enjoyed wielding as a skilled artist is able to wield his paint brushes confidently and pleasurably.

I felt at ease as I made use of challenging concepts, like the relationship between law and grace, kindness and firmness. God’s wisdom enabled me to see my probationers through the eyes of God and also the eyes of the law, which God had ordained. It also allowed me to play the role of a stern yet compassionate father, the very thing that my probationers needed. Had I not felt confident in applying these concepts to varied people and situations, I would not have been able to relate to my probationers with the necessary ease and confidence.

However, it wasn’t always this way. As a substitute teacher, I struggled with applying the teachings of Jesus to the classroom. When should I turn the other cheek? When should I forgive? I was confused and probably showed it.

These questions had forced me to consider what it must have been like for my fellow probation officers. Did they believe that “love conquers all” and how did this understanding affect the way they performed their job? Did they simple indulge their probationers, thinking that this was best for them? What would they do once they found that this strategy failed to work with many? Consequently, many POs struggled with burnout.

Others believe that we are just the product of our nurture and nature, our upbringing and our genes. Some take it a step further and believe that we don’t have freewill, that we are not responsible moral agents, and that we couldn’t have acted better than we did? How would these beliefs affect their job performance? Would they equip their probationers to identify and resist their criminal impulses? Would they have been able to stand against the manipulations of their probationers?

If the ideal father needs to be both firm and nurturing, what beliefs would he need to exercise these roles? I found that the Bible had equipped with the precise understanding to navigate successfully.