As I sit here typing these words I wonder how much actual wisdom I possess. Some of you readers might argue very little, and for that I wouldn’t even know what to say. Because the assessment of our own wisdom is so stinking subjective and prideful that it’s really hard to get an accurate bearing on quantity let alone quality.
Yet Jesus said something so brief and poignant that I really have to use it as precedent for making a point. In Luke 7:35 we find the Lord’s words; “But wisdom is proved right by all her children.” (NIV)
Have you ever wondered what God’s purpose was in giving us the ability to accept wisdom or to reject it? The unfortunate fact is that most of us are so insecure (ever since we realized we were naked – about 8,000 years ago) that when our need for wisdom is suggested, we bristle and go hide in a bush somewhere. Or we stand up with our fists raised and determine that anyone else’s assessment of our need for more wisdom is grounds for a fight. Either way our reactions are usually pretty immature. And indeed reveal our bad feelings about being naked.
It seems that we’ve progressively gotten worse when it comes to the acknowledgment of our need for wisdom, because children are the payout. Look around, walk around, shop around, and talk around. Just rub up against anyone these days and you’ll find such a deficit of wisdom it’s scary.
Stupid seems to be really cool and hip these days. As a result, wisdom and knowledge are more and more the bastard children of some Department of Homeland Security’s latest extremist hit list.
And why might that be? Because in our own eyes each of us has lost value. Somewhere along the line we’ve believed the lie that we’ve got to compete with the folks next door. Before you know it we’re up to our eyeballs in nitrogenous waste, usually without a paddle. All because we rejected wisdom, then we rejected our own value, which led to the mad scramble of satiating our bad feelings, which always leads to throwing someone under the bus. All in the name of trying to make ourselves feel better about ourselves.
If the wisdom of man is good and suitable for life, then his children should be in good shape. But they’re not. And if we believe in the Wisdom of God, then so too like Jesus said, our children would be in good shape also, but they’re not.
When the Barna Research Group comes out with statistics that show well over 1/3 of self professing Christians do NOT believe that the Holy Spirit nor the Devil are real, but simply metaphors for good and evil, we better check the parents of these children, because we’ve got some bastards on our hands that are rapidly headed in the wrong direction.
And the crazy part is this: if we ask God for Wisdom, He says He’ll give it, but first He’ll check our motives. If the end result is an increase of man centered wisdom, then it’s likely our collective cry for God’s Wisdom either a) went unheard by God or b) our motives were wrong.
So the next time you think you’ve got some slick wisdom going for you, check the children. If they’re doing great, then maybe its God… if not you might have gotten sucked in by the oldest trick in the Book.
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