It is fine to
expect our spiritual journeys to bring us to a place of wisdom. Most of us suspect there is some difference
between knowledge and wisdom. Most
languages, even English, have different words for knowledge and wisdom. In Latin the word for knowledge is scientia, which gives us the obvious
English word, science. Most of us can
remember those classes, even in high school, where gaining knowledge was not
easy. Those chemistry classes, math
classes, and others were deemed “hard.”
As I recall
my formal education, certainly that education before college, I recall no one
mentioning, much less teaching, anything about wisdom. If one had a good philosophy class in
college, reference might be given to the “wisdom of the Greeks.” But again, colleges do not seem to be in the
business of teaching about wisdom.
Even
churches, at least Christian churches, are seemingly not in the business of
teaching about wisdom. Of course, that
is not quite fair. There are books of
the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) that explicitly are called “Wisdom
Literature.” I think of Job, Proverbs,
some Psalms and others. There are
snippets of the New Testament that can be seen as part of this “Wisdom
Tradition.” Sometimes John’s gospel
portrays Jesus as Wisdom incarnate. This
means that John sees Jesus living his life as Wisdom in human form.
But I am
still left pondering: “Yes, but where do I, practically speaking, look for and,
hopefully, find wisdom?” I was helped in
something I recently read in a book called, Essential
Spirituality, by Roger Walsh. To the
question, where do I look for wisdom, Walsh answers, “everywhere: in every
person, situation, and experience to which I bring an open inquiring
mind.” Walsh continues by recommending
five particular places we could seek wisdom: in nature, in silence and
solitude, from the wise, in ourselves, and finally, from reflecting on the
nature of life and death.
I find this
kind of advice quite helpful. It is
still very general, but it gives me a focus for some spiritual
development. Let’s look at some of these
in detail. One source of wisdom, says
Walsh, is nature. That is so true for
me. I covet that first day of spring
when the world “comes alive.” It is as
if the very Spirit of the Divinity Itself awakens from the winter’s
dormancy. The vibrancy of the world
comes into our awareness and it is easier to believe.
A second
place wisdom is found is in silence and solitude. This has been very important to me. I admit that I am an introvert, so I may be
less bothered by solitude than my extrovert friends. And perhaps my Quaker background prepares me
to be at ease with silence that is different than our noisy culture. Whatever the case, I am confident that all
people need to spend some significant time in silence and solitude to begin
discovering the heart of wisdom. I am
pretty sure there is little wisdom being dispensed in the cultural media of our
day---television, etc. I need to be
alone and quiet for the God of Wisdom to speak to my condition. I need to be quiet to hear.
I absolutely
love Walsh’s next source of wisdom, namely, the wise. That seems so obvious I wonder why more of us
don’t take advantage of it. Of course,
if I want to discover the heart of wisdom, why not find myself with someone who
has a heart of wisdom! One of those
people who played that role for me was a colleague who taught at the same place
I once taught. She had not done any
formal theological training, so in many ways, was much less knowledgeable than
all the rest of the faculty. In fact,
some of us wondered whether she was competent to be teaching! But she was a wise soul. She knew God in her heart and she soulfully
followed God’s desires. I needed to
learn to walk with her. Then I could
discover the heart of wisdom.
Walsh’s next
source is a bit surprising. We are a
source of wisdom for ourselves. Part of
me wants to yell, “No, I’m not!”
However, I acknowledge that I am a child of God---created in the divine
image. Most of us know a great deal more
than we think we know. And most of us
can become wise if we would allow that process to unfold. We have spiritual instincts. We are divinely intuitive. We need to touch that and trust that
process. We already have a heart of
wisdom; we simply need to discover it.
The final
source is again pretty obvious. We can
study life and death. Life is quite
revelatory. Pay attention to what your
body tells you. Listen to the deep
questions of your spirit. Recognize the
lessons that dying and death will teach.
As I get older, I become more aware that I really am mortal---that I
will die. For a long time in my life, I
knew it was theoretically true. Now it
seems much more likely to be absolutely true!
So what do we
find when we discover the heart of Wisdom?
Simply put, we discover the very God Itself. We discover a God who calls, who cares, and
who is ultimately compassionate. We
discover a God who loves us to death.
And likely who loves us beyond death.
WOW!
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