On Faith and Values: On the road to wisdom, drive carefully
All three of our kids ended up taking behind-the-wheel driver ed training from the same gentleman, who they described to me as a somewhat elderly, somewhat cantankerous fellow. I never met him; I’d just see him out front when he’d come by in the driving school car to pick up one of our fledgling drivers.
Doesn’t matter. I will be forever grateful to him.
Over time, he told each kid some version of this: “If you’re not wearing your seat belt and you get in an accident, your face is going to hit the windshield. If that happens, you’re going to need skin grafts. You know where they’re going to get the skin graft from? Your ass! So if you don’t want to wear your ass on your face, wear your seat belts!”
Sometimes you just need to hear some wisdom, and hear it in a colorful way that will stick with you forever.
A very kind man who hired me a few decades ago once told me of a job interview he conducted. He asked the applicant the common question about what one of her perceived weaknesses might be. She responded, “I can be brutally honest.”
“Why do you have to be brutal to be honest?” he asked her.
Sometimes you just need to hear wisdom, and hear it in a gentle question that will also stick with you forever.
One of the official definitions of wisdom I’ve come across says it’s “the knowledge of what is true or right, coupled with just judgment as to action.” It also mentioned words like discernment and insight. I like that, but I also like this less academic one: “Knowledge is knowing that, technically, it would be correct to include a tomato in a fruit salad. Wisdom is understanding that it would be unwise to do so.”
Wisdom tends to develop from time and experience, which is why we don’t often identify 22-year-olds as possessing great amounts of it (though there are exceptions). The people we do think of when we think of wisdom have usually run a few laps around life’s track. They also, in a way common to us humans, seem to gain it more through failure and suffering than through success and ease, and also in humility, realizing that there is really more to know than one can ever learn.
King Solomon is thought of as one of history’s most astute practitioners of wisdom. He was a son of King David, rose to the throne of ancient Israel, and is credited with writing the Biblical book of Proverbs. In it, he urged his people then—and us now—to make the pursuit of wisdom a top priority. “Tune your ears to wisdom,” he writes, “and concentrate on understanding. Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding. Search for them as you would for silver, seek them like hidden treasures.”
It’s interesting to note that though Solomon was legendarily wealthy, known as the richest man of his time, he taught that wisdom and understanding were at least as valuable as his treasuries of gold and silver.
It’s also interesting to note that he wasn’t interested in people acquiring wisdom for its own sake or for being known by others as a sage advisor.
No, he valued the pursuit of wisdom because those who develop it “will gain knowledge of God. For the Lord grants wisdom! From his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest….You will understand what is right, just, and fair, and you will find the right way to go.”
I want to find the right way to go. Solomon says God grants wisdom and James, brother of Jesus, agrees, writing in his New Testament book, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all,” later adding, “The wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy.”
I’m up for that. Maybe all it means to seek wisdom is to ask for it and then to live our lives with a growing desire to see what God may be teaching us as we do.
We should probably make sure our seat belts are buckled, too.
