Tag Archive : lifestyle

Why is it that wisdom seems so rare? Why does it seem like common sense just isn’t so common anymore? I propose an answer, that answer? — Us.

We prefer the opposite, the antithesis, of wisdom. You see, wisdom is simple. Wisdom is easy. Wisdom is the principal thing. Wisdom has answers, sometimes at a moment’s grasp, and other times in the vague distance of our vision. So why don’t we like this simplicity? Why don’t we walk in this wisdom? Why don’t we choose the often obvious and easy route that wisdom offers us? Why do we take the hard route? There are a few reasons that come to my mind.

{Proverbs 4:7}

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One:  We crave complication

Complication, we crave it. 

Think about it. 

Have you ever had a conversation with someone and found yourself trying to make sure you remember every little detail (and the story goes ten minutes longer than it should)? How about when someone tells you something that is going on in their life and the cycle of “whose situation is worse” begins? How about you overthinkers? Do you bring more variables into the equation than is needed? We can all relate in some way, and there are many other examples that I am sure you could recognize in your own life.

So, how does this relate to wisdom?

Well, as I said before, wisdom is simple. There is simplicity in wise choices, answers, and decisions. Dr. John Delony once stated, “We have a cultural pathology, if you will—like a psychological issue—which is you solve things by adding to them. You solve things by getting another planner, going to get more candles, having a warm bath, yoga. We never think that we can solve things by taking things away, by stopping things.”¹ In my office at church, I have a Post-it Note on my computer that says, “Simplicity is the key to success.” Wisdom says, “Here’s what to do.” We say, “There has to be more to it than that.” Wisdom says, “Here is the path of least resistance to get to the designated outcome.” We say, “There has to be a more complex explanation and course.”

We try to find a different way of doing things. We try to make things out to be more than what they are. We try to make sure our situation has a myriad of intricacies woven throughout the minutia of our tapestry-life. After all, isn’t this what gets us attention? Isn’t this what draws the spotlight to us? Isn’t this what brings us the multitudes? The multitudes that so earnestly seek to help us solve this seeming conundrum that we have masqueraded as our life. This masquerade that is self-invented, self-focused, and at its root, is self-glorifying.

Complication, we crave it. We crave it because, without it, our hearts would be missing that pinnacle desire that resides in the fabric of its DNA—Self-glory.

{Proverbs 14:12, 16:25; Ecclesiastes 7:29}

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Two:  We Hate Waiting

Wisdom often waits.

Yes, this one is a struggle, isn’t it? 

Waiting implies patience. Patience implies trials. Trials imply struggling. Struggling implies fighting. Fighting implies the risk of defeat or rejection, and nobody enjoys that.

Wisdom calls us to bring every choice to a deciding period. That period could be five seconds (as most of our daily decisions are), but the big ones that we remember are the ones that often take us into what we know as seasons. Though seasons come and go, they nevertheless have their designated length. This is what we hate.

This length of time goes against our desire to want what we want now. We naturally reject the discipline that waiting requires. We want the harvest of righteousness without the time, patience, and labor that is required to have it. We rush. We run. It’s ingrained into us through our daily lives. Stress is our drug, and anxiety is our addiction. We yearn for it, and we burn in it. We would rather take the quick route than the one that calls for our hearts to rest and pause.

Wisdom often waits. We hate waiting because it implies, we are not in control of our situation and that something else is the one producing the results of our lives.

{Psalm 37:7, 40:1; Ecclesiastes 7:8; Hebrews 12:11; James 1:2-7; 1 Peter 1:6-9}

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Three:  We are High-minded 

Wisdom forces humility.

Yes, I know that word is tough. 

Humility is ultimately the culmination of the patience and simplicity that has been previously mentioned. It is that lowly state, not just of demeanor, but of being. Inwardly and outwardly, humility affects its host. 

Humility is intertwined and irremovable from wisdom. For wisdom does not come from within. It comes from without. Its source is not one’s own heart or default intuition. The source of wisdom is God. God is the All-wise. He defines wisdom and, therefore, wisdom flows from Him.  

This truth is that without humility, we cannot have wisdom. Humility hurts. It seems that there are only two ways for us to be humbled in this pilgrimage of life: we humble ourselves, or God humbles us. Sadly, it is often the latter. Humility confronts us. Humility literally tears us down. Humility shows us who we are not and requires that we face that reality. Humility requires the ultimate sacrifice—the sacrifice of self.

Wisdom forces humility. Humility produces wisdom. To obtain wisdom, we must humble ourselves before God in submission to Who He is because of who we are.

{Psalm 138:6; Proverbs 3:34; James 1:5-8, 4:6-7; 1 Peter 5:5-6}

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I would encourage you to visit J.I. Packer’s writing entitled Knowing God, in the twentieth chapter, he introduces “six common pitfalls” of why we tend to not follow the leading of the Lord. They are:

1. Unwillingness to think.
2. Unwillingness to think ahead.
3. Unwillingness to take advice.
4. Unwillingness to suspect oneself.
5. Unwillingness to discount personal magnetism.
6. Unwillingness to wait.²

So, wisdom is rare… rare because, by nature, we are contrary to it. But there is hope! There is hope for those who desire to be contrary to our nature. For the Lord has promised to provide us with wisdom if we do one simple thing—ask. Thank you for reading. I love you all, and God is good.

Until we write again…..

                                    In, for, and because of Christ,

                                                               V.S. See

1. http://daveramsey.ramsey.libsynpro.com/11302020-h2
2. Packer, J.I. 1973. Knowing God. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press