I have much to learn. Though I do not wish to place knowledge as my utmost, I know that there is truth in the Word when it was mentioned that people perish for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). Now, there may be a different context to that passage, but I'm taking it as it is for now. Ignorance is not bliss. It's not even just wrong. It's destructive. It's fatal.
I say this now considering everything I've been through for the past 30-some years of my life. Not that I've gone through stuff more impacting than what others have been through - because I know that everyone else has had their fair share of trials unique to them - but I've learned enough to know that contrary to the saying, what you don't know can kill you.
The stakes are higher as you grow older, and as responsibilities arise. Gone are the days of youth when I thought I had everything figured out, and what I knew was enough to tide me over until I croaked. I say to myself now, never stop learning - and part of this means, 'have a stronger grasp on what you already know.'
I say this to myself again, and again, and again... because it's not enough to have knowledge, it's vital to know what to do with it.
And here we see the importance of wisdom. And this seems to be the root of what I want to say. To myself, or to anyone, really.
We have much to learn - but it's not about knowledge or smarts more than it is about wisdom. We will have a lifetime of triumphs and failures, a lifetime of lessons we will learn, unlearn and relearn... As we grow older, we will learn things, and eventually we will have a good grasp on these things, enough experience to share to future generations.
If experience is the best teacher, then it implies that the oldest among us has the most to share to us. I love my parents. I wish I had more time with my Dad, to hear more about what he learned during his absolutely colorful life. I'm thankful to the Lord for my Mom, who not only has a wealth of experience in her own way, but also is relentless in telling it how she thinks it is. Thank God for lolos and lolas, uncles and aunties... thank God for those who have stepped in to this life earlier than we have. I read somewhere that we should be thankful for our elders, not because of the conventional reasons we've been told to keep in mind, but simply because they have made more mistakes than we have, and as they live, they have lessons to share to us.
But I do want to share that though I thank God for our elders who, by His grace, are able to share wisdom to us, I thank God for who He is. Friend, He is not just as old as time - He created time, and therefore is beyond time itself. He knows everything, and we would do well to acknowledge the fact that all wisdom that there is to gain does not come from anywhere else but Him.
This wasn't the path I intended to take at the beginning of this article, but I'll keep on going here. Wisdom, ultimate wisdom, has a Source - God (Proverbs 2:6). He knows everything there is to know about us - in fact, before we ever even came to existence, He knew us - He knows every single thing we are capable of doing, He knows us the deepest parts of our hearts and souls - He knows every struggle and sin we would ever do, and HE LOVES US STILL... with an everlasting love.
It wasn't enough that He knows us. It wasn't enough that He adores us. No, He LOVES us, so much that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." (Philippians 2:6-8)
Christ was fully God, and set that aside to be fully man, to live as one of us. He felt what we felt, and He was tempted, that He could come to the aid of us all as we are tempted (Hebrews 2:18).
When we take all this into consideration, we would have to agree with the oft-mentioned Proverb, 'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.' Though this is not fear as the world would cause us to understand it, full of terror and doubt and trepidation - no, I believe that the mere realization that wisdom comes from the Lord (again, as mentioned in Proverbs 2:6) is a good place for anyone to start gaining it, no matter what age we are.
I have much to learn. I dare say, we all have much to learn. I believe James gives us a greater perspective of the ideal approach to true wisdom:
"If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of [b]the giving God [Who gives] to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him. Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (no hesitating, no doubting). For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind." (James 1:5-6)
Soli Deo Gloria.
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email me at jibee@rocketmail.com.
May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift His countenance upon you and give you His Shalom. - Numbers 6:24-26