The Messiness of Wisdom

Dear Friends,
According to dictionary.com, wisdom is defined as “knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action; sagacity, discernment, or insight.”

Wisdom is more than intelligence. Wisdom uses our native intelligence to make decisions that are right and good. Wisdom keeps us from foolishness, according to the author of Ephesians. And wisdom is what Solomon sought when God asked him in a dream what it was he most wanted.

For people of the Christian faith, wisdom is a gift from God that is used to bring our world ever closer to God’s realm. Wisdom thus involves not just thought but action.

In worship on Sunday, I used a familiar image when I spoke of wisdom: Rodin’s sculpture The Thinker. But that’s only part of the story of wisdom. After one thinks, one is moved to action based on one’s thoughts.

As Paula Poceicha, our Regional Minister for Congregational Care, pointed out during the Invitation to Communion, wisdom can be messy. It’s chaotic. Wisdom is not linear like intelligence. Wisdom does not necessarily go neatly from point A to point B to point C.

We prefer in our daily lives the straightforwardness and sedentary nature of intelligence. With wisdom, we are moved to action in the midst of a world that doesn’t make sense.

Wisdom eschews the greed and denial of the world, opting instead for justice and getting our hands dirty with the work to which God calls us.

Wisdom is indeed chaotic as doing the right thing is not always clear and easy. Wisdom can lead us down paths we’d rather not travel and may even make us unpopular. Wisdom is engaging the intelligence of the world and bending it and turning it to become wise and discerning.

Seek wisdom; each and every day. Be ready for the chaos and the confusion it brings.

Peace,
Gerry

text © Gerry Brague
photo © Wally Gobetz, wallyg on flickr used by Creative Commons license