Wisdom

In search of wisdom…

Job, Chapter 28, asserts that wisdom cannot be found in gold, silver, or precious gems. According to this passage, wisdom is “hidden from the eyes of every living thing.” Even destruction and death have only heard rumors of wisdom. God alone knows where to find it: “The fear of the Lord – that is wisdom, and to turn from evil is understanding.”

Solomon asked for wisdom above wealth, power, and honor. He realized it would take wisdom to rule his people. Wisdom may not be easily found, but it seems to me it must be sought. I’ve been thinking about wisdom and I have some tentative proposals.

We spent time in my critical thinking seminar considering the Four Cardinal Virtues – prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude. Prudence, or wisdom, is often listed first, perhaps because the other three depend on it, just as Solomon relied on wisdom to guide him, and wealth, power, and honor came later. It should be self-evident that without wisdom, everything else eventually fails.

I believe we can seek wisdom, not just wait until it is bestowed on us. Hidden things have a way of being revealed to those who truly seek them. The master told us to “ask,” “seek,” and “knock,” not sit idle. “The fear of the Lord” may mean that we should remain humble about what we know and more importantly, what we do not know. To me, humility seems to be a good first step towards wisdom.

If you want to pray a scary prayer, ask for clarity – to understand what is really going on, what is really motivating you and others, what the world is really like. I’ve learned to pray this prayer with caution, because most often the first thing I learn is my own defective ideas about what I think I know, and that if wisdom is hidden from me, it is often because I thought I knew better. The lies we tell ourselves are wisdom blockers. Maybe wisdom is hidden from us because we hide it.

I admire people who can cut through all the pretense and nonsense in the world around them, and especially the pretense and nonsense going on in their own heads. If we’re going to take any problem seriously, we first need to take a hard look at how we might be contributing to it. One doesn’t need to be a human lie detector to set aside self-serving thinking. We just need to turn away from the evil notion that we already have all the answers.

So, with humility in mind, here are three concepts that have helped me in the search for wisdom. I’ve already alluded to the first: Seek to understand reality. Solomon tried to determine the true nature of people and things – not what he wished it to be, but what it truly was. We can’t make wise choices if we don’t know what is really going on.

We also need to seek to understand others. Words like kindness, compassion, and empathy come to mind. People who do not think like us, speak like us, act like us, and so on, are not therefore “evil.” It’s easy to dehumanize those who don’t agree with us or who come from a different background. Labelling and disregarding others are not substitutes for seeking understanding.

Finally, we need to seek to understand the consequences of our words and actions. How often have poorly informed, half-baked remarks gotten us in trouble? How often do we act before we think? These are more than rhetorical questions. Most of “cancel culture” is based on a failure to understand reality plus a failure to consider consequences. If we expect to make wise decisions, we must cultivate our ability to anticipate how our choices will affect ourselves and others.

The Amish have a saying, “We get too soon old, and too late smart.” It takes a time to seek wisdom. So, if we want to find even a little piece of wisdom in this life, perhaps we should try to see the world as God might see it – as it truly is. If the golden rule means anything, it would also be wise to think before we act.