Daily In The Word – Feb. 8th – On Wisdom
I am running a day behind on my readings, too much going on during yesterday’s meetings. So I am going to give you my first thoughts from yesterday’s reading and hopefully my thoughts from today’s reading a little later. The topic is wisdom. It’s often easy for our modern language to confuse the topics of wisdom and intelligence. These two things are not mutually inclusive. It is easy for someone to be intelligent… meaning they have a lot of information and can actively accept, process and reintegrate it into their life. Likewise, there are many people who are quite wise in that they have lived life and have learned many lessons about how to deal with the ebb and flow of life as a whole. Can someone be very intelligent and also wise? Certainly! Can someone be very wise and not very intelligent? Sure… I have many ancestors who, though they may not be able to explain Physics or Linguistics, have much knowledge to share with those around them. The best equipped people, of course, are those who can carry equal amounts of wisdom and intelligence in a graceful way. The wisest ones have much to be excited about according to the bible as the Proverbs state in this little section about Wisdom: “I love all who love me. Those who search will surely find me. I have riches and honor, as well as enduring wealth and justice. My gifts are better than gold, even the purest gold, my wages better than sterling silver!” (Proverbs 8:17-19, NLT). It’s important to understand context here. Though one could easily say “oh! The Bible must be talking about having the Holy Spirit in their lives” While it’s no doubt that having the Holy Spirit is critical to our lives, this particular tidbit is simply talking about having wisdom in life. May we all search after wisdom so as to enjoy it’s blessings!