Wisdom 101

There is so much wisdom in the book of Proverbs.  Many of the proverbs just ring out with truth, and we can immediately apply them.  They rebuke the proud, the deceitful, the unrepentantly sinful, the stubbornly foolish who can’t get past their unsupported opinions, and many others whom we can recognize—all of these so prevalent in the world.  On the other hand, they exalt the humbly thoughtful, the truthful, those who refuse to participate in evil, and above all the prudent, the insightful, the diligent—qualities that are in such short supply.

And then there are the proverbs that just make you scratch your head.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that many of us quickly get to a saturation point when we’re reading Proverbs.  There’s a sense of sameness that makes our eyes glaze over, and we stop being able to absorb the content unless we limit ourselves to small doses.  Now, I know that there are also quite a few who have undertaken serious study of Proverbs, and I commend you if you are one of them.  Here’s the thing.  Whether you are a more superficial reader or a student of the depths, I will bet that you’ve come across sayings that make you say, “Huh, I wonder what that’s supposed to mean?”   And sometimes, “Well that just doesn’t sound right at all!” 

Proverbs is deemed to be one of the “wisdom” books, and wisdom is exactly what it purports to convey.  So unless I think I’m the epitome of wisdom myself, then there’s going to be things that I’m not sufficiently advanced to be able to grasp.  Yet.  Not necessarily permanently beyond me, but for the time being I don’t get it.

It strikes me that one early indication of actual wisdom is the admission of, let’s call it “wisdom deficiency”.  That is, admitting I need to be taught, I don’t have all the answers, I may be wrong.  What Proverbs, and the rest of the Bible, call humility.

If someone has a vitamin deficiency, the obvious answer is to eat more foods that contain that vitamin, maybe take a supplement too.  What about wisdom deficiency?  Doesn’t it make sense to up our intake of wisdom?  Just as someone might not like to eat more green vegetables, we might not like to make the admission that we still need to be taught.  That we might be wrong.

The admission, an early step toward actual wisdom, is what Jesus was conveying when he said, “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”  (Matthew 18:3-4)  Another time he prayed, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.”  (Luke 10:21)

What does this mean?  Among other things perhaps, it surely means that when we think ourselves “wise” and “understanding”, we are almost certain to be using the world’s standard, adopting the world’s idea of sophisticated thought.  It means we need to consciously take a less sophisticated approach to what has been revealed!  Backwards from what the world teaches us, backwards from our inclination.

This is not to say there’s no place for moving beyond childlike simplicity.  Proverbs itself is plain in exhorting us to do so.  I think the difference is in starting point.  If we start with worldly-wise sophistication, we will entirely miss the mark.  We all nod and say amen, because we don’t want to think that’s what we do.  But our hearts/minds are self-deceitful.  So we have a conundrum, don’t we?  How do we know if we’re fooling ourselves?

Perhaps this is why Proverbs contains some of those “what does that mean?” and “that doesn’t seem right!” sayings.  They make us admit we don’t know.  Make us humble ourselves a little.  Wisdom, insight, understanding, we are told repeatedly, must be sought, hunted for.  Wisdom calls to us, but she is frustrated at how few pay attention.  Wisdom isn’t unattainable!  But the way to it runs counter to our nature and to everything we have absorbed from the world.  We should remember this when we find ourselves scratching our head.  Remember that taking our opinion of ourself down a couple notches is likely to be the way toward understanding.

Love, Paul

If you have any feedback, please contact me at: paul.zilmer@gmail.com