“Happy is a man who finds wisdom and who acquires understanding, for she is more profitable than silver, and her revenue is better than gold. She is more precious than jewels; nothing you desire can equal her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left, riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant, and all her paths, peaceful. She is a tree of life to those who embrace her, and those who hold on to her are happy.” (Proverbs 3:13-18 CSB – Read the chapter)

There are many things we are taught to pursue in this life. Money, celebrity, and power are chief among them. These, we are told, are the kinds of things that will make us happy. When we can afford whatever we want, when everybody likes us, and when we can get our way, all the bad feelings associated with not having those things will disappear. Perhaps…but the greater likelihood is that they will just take a different form. The Scriptures offer something else as the real pathway to happiness. It doesn’t look or work the same as what the world offers, but its success rate at achieving its ends is far higher. Let’s talk about what it is.

Let’s just jump right to the point here. The thing we are supposed to pursue that will bring us the happiness we seek is wisdom. Wisdom is the thing that enables the happiness we are pursuing in all those other things we think will make us happy. Without wisdom, they won’t. The stories of people with money but no wisdom who wind up miserable are a dime a dozen. There are plenty of tales of celebrities with no wisdom who ruin their lives and the lives of the people around them. And we seem to be treated to an endless series of sagas of people with political power and no wisdom today and the sordid things that keep spilling out of their closets.

You pick the focus of your happiness search. If you don’t pair whatever it is with wisdom, you will not only wind up missing the mark of happiness, you will likely run face first into the wall of misery instead. The happiest people you will meet are also the wisest people you will encounter. Well, let me amend that just a bit. The most genuinely happy people you will meet who are not just putting on a grand show of happiness to mask the aching loneliness and despair and misery hiding just beneath the surface so that no one suspects how wretched they really are will also be the wisest people you will meet.

When a person grows in wisdom, and gains understanding into the situations and relationships around them, happiness will be the natural fruit their life begins to produce. Wisdom like this is better than any amount of wealth you could acquire. Don’t take my word for that. Take the word of Solomon, the wealthiest king who ever ruled. He had more silver and gold and jewels than he could begin to spend, and yet none of them could purchase him happiness. Wisdom was the only thing that did the trick.

There is nothing you could desire that will bring you the happiness you desire other than wisdom. That new car or new outfit or new gadget isn’t going to do the trick. That’s nothing more than a dopamine hit that won’t last. You can’t scroll your way to happiness on social media. That won’t do anything more than heighten your sense of insecurity and insufficiency. You won’t find it in sexual pleasure whether you pursue that online or in person with someone other than your spouse. If you are growing tired of your current relationship, a new one isn’t going to solve any issues. Only wisdom will give you any gains here.

Those who pursue a path of wisdom gain long life. That long life may manifest itself in this life, and often does, but it will definitely manifest itself in the next when you enjoy the eternal pleasures of God’s kingdom. People who are wise often gain the riches others seek, but in gaining them with wisdom, they bring to those riches the ability to actually enjoy them. Wise people earn for themselves the honor fools seek to manipulate to their own ends.

The person living by wisdom has a more pleasant life than the person who isn’t. Their relationships are marked by peace and contentment. That person not only enjoys their own life, they give life, they enrich the lives of the people around them. In short, and to finish where we started, wisdom leads to happiness. “Happy is a [person] who finds wisdom…and those who hold on to her are happy.” Find wisdom and keep it, and the happiness you seek will be yours at last.