Tag: Seeking Wisdom

Hiker walking on rocky mountain path towards sunrise with trekking poles

The Secret to Happiness

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“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.

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Knowing You Are NOT Wise

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“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight. Don’t be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil. This will be healing for your body and strengthening for your bones. (Proverbs 3:5-8 CSB – Read the chapter)

Men are infamous for not wanting to ask for directions. Personally, I hate not knowing where I am, but I also don’t like getting directions from another person. But this is because I need to see a map. Verbal directions are mostly meaningless to me. If I can see it, I do much better. My weakness is that if I actually do think I know where I’m going, I can be pretty stubborn about it. It’s easy to convince ourselves we know where we are going when we really don’t. That’s true on the road, and it’s true in life. Solomon has some wisdom here for the latter. Let’s take a look.

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How to Seek Wisdom Like a Treasure

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“My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, listening closely to wisdom and directing your heart to understanding; furthermore, if you call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God.” (Proverbs 2:1-5 CSB – Read the chapter)

Think for just a second about the total number of things you have learned truly on your own. You did the research. You performed the experiments. You found all the secrets. You not only solved the equations, you came up with them in the first place. This was truly unique knowledge, you are managed to get it for yourself. How long is that list? I have a sneaking suspicion that it’s not actually very long. Let me add another thing to it: the Christian faith. No one comes to or grows in the faith all by themselves. Let’s talk about how it actually happens.

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Learning from the Hard Way

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“Since I called out and you refused, extended my hand and no one paid attention, since you neglected all my counsel and did not accept my correction, I, in turn, will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when terror strikes you, when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when trouble and stress overcome you. Then they will call me, but I won’t answer; they will search for me, but won’t find me. Because they hated knowledge, didn’t choose to fear the Lord, were not interested in my counsel, and rejected all my correction, they will eat the fruit of their way and be glutted with their own schemes.” (Proverbs 1:24-31 CSB – Read the chapter)

There’s an old saying about the fury of a scorned lover. When you get all caught up with another person and they reject your advances, the resultant grief will often manifest as a particularly potent form of anger. Through the opening chapters of Proverbs, wisdom is personified as a woman who is eagerly seeking out the company of those who will receive her. She wants to be found and embraced. She wants for her words to be heeded, and for her lovers to enjoy all the sweet fruits that come from a deep and abiding relationship with her. If her advances are rejected, though, all of that passion reverses its direction, and our rejection of her will be matched on at least equal terms. In other words, if we don’t like wisdom, we’ll get what’s coming to us. Let’s talk about it.

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Seeking Wisdom: A Call to Action

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“Wisdom calls out in the street; she makes her voice heard in the public squares. She cries out above the commotion; she speaks at the entrance of the city gates: “How long, inexperienced ones, will you love ignorance? How long will you mockers enjoy mocking and you fools hate knowledge? If you respond to my warning, then I will pour out my spirit on you and teach you my words.” (Proverbs 1:20-23 CSB – Read the chapter)

How does one find wisdom? Many people might answer that question by pointing to experience. If we just live long enough, eventually we’ll accumulate some wisdom as we go. If we encounter enough different situations, wisdom will be the natural result. And that sounds like it could be true except that there are old people who are still fools, and busy people who don’t seem to have learned a thing from all they’ve done. No, the truth is that wisdom doesn’t come naturally. It must be sought on purpose. Thankfully, as much as we might be seeking it – seeking her to use the personification wisdom receives in Proverbs – she is seeking us too. We just have to listen. The last big section of Proverbs 1 talks about wisdom’s efforts to call us to her. We’re going to break this down into three parts and take a look at each in turn. Let’s dive in.

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