Focus

Stop and thank God for being present with you today. Ask for God’s guidance as you hear God’s voice through scripture and the writer.

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Read

Proverbs 4:1-9 (NRSV)

Hear, O sons, a father’s instruction,
and be attentive, that you may gain insight;
for I give you good precepts:
do not forsake my teaching.
When I was a son with my father,
tender, the only one in the sight of my mother,
he taught me, and said to me,
“Let your heart hold fast my words;
keep my commandments, and live;
do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.
Get wisdom; get insight.
Do not forsake her, and she will keep you;
love her, and she will guard you.
The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom,
and whatever you get, get insight.
Prize her highly, and she will exalt you;
she will honor you if you embrace her.
She will place on your head a fair garland;
she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.”

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Reflect

I saw a meme the other day that made me chuckle. The meme had a picture of a famous superhero on it with these words: “My common sense is tingling.” I grew up making straight A’s in school, graduating in the top percent of both my high school and undergraduate classes. I knew how to master information. As I have grown older, I have begun to question whether or not mastering information is the best approach to learning.

I do not consider myself wise by any means, but I now understand that there is a difference between mastering information and having wisdom. The writer of Proverbs tells us, “The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom.” So maybe at 34 I’ve finally found the starting point of wisdom—recognizing that one isn’t as wise as he or she initially thought.

The writer of Proverbs paints wisdom as a lady who is eager to get to know us; all we really have to do is ask. So, if wisdom is so easy to find and so eager to be of assistance, why does humanity do such unwise things? Is it because wisdom is more elusive than she lets on, or is it because we just don’t ask?

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Pray

Holy Parent, we know you who desire all good things for us. Help us to desire wisdom more than fact-gathering. Guide us in the search for truth. Give us boldness to embrace your wisdom, even when it appears to be foolishness to the world. Thank you for offering yourself to us. Amen.

Go with God.