wisdom

Opening Prayer: Give us a God-listening heart, O God, that we may know you and your wisdom, rather than just the wisdom of this world.  Amen.

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 9:13-18

Journal: What is wisdom to you?  What is wisdom under the sun?  What is wisdom under heaven?  How do you tell the difference?

Reflection:  What is wisdom, really?  The answer to that question, I suppose, depends on who you ask.  At least that’s what the book of Ecclesiastes would lead us to believe.  Because in the book of Ecclesiastes there are two key phrases that need to have special attention paid to them: under the sun and under heaven.  Those two phrases are meant to guide us through the wisdom of the rest of the book.  Under the sun refers to seeing things from the world’s perspective, while under heaven challenges us to see all things from God’s point of view.  Thus, when we talk about wisdom under the sun, we come up with a much different definition and description than when we talk about it under heaven.     

     In our day, and in our culture, the wise seem to be those who can articulate their thoughts the most compellingly and sell them the most convincingly.  But is that really wisdom, or merely salesmanship?  Is the voice of wisdom the one that is loudest and strongest and most passionate—or even the most articulate?  Is the voice of wisdom the one that claims to know all, the one that claims to be wise?  Or is the voice of wisdom the one that is soft and quiet and gentle; the one that is humble and far less sure of itself?  After all, wasn’t it Socrates who said, “The only true wisdom is knowing that you know nothing.”?

     I think we all have a desire to be seen as wise by those around us, maybe that’s why we so often raise our voices; in order to convince our world—and maybe even ourselves at times—that we actually know what we are talking about.  But is that true wisdom?  Something tells me that true wisdom doesn’t really care about being thought wise.

     So, in our quest for wisdom, we might be wise to pay careful attention to what voices we listen to.  Are they merely the loudest and strongest and most articulate?  Or are they the voices that ring with the Spirit of grace and the truth, the Spirit of love and peace and compassion?  Those are the voices that are under heaven rather than merely under the sun.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Give us wisdom from above, O God—wisdom under heaven—that we might know you and know how you want us to live.  Amen.