What is wisdom?
THE WORD SEEMS ESOTERIC to many people; in fact, it can mean many different things, and I dare say there are many variations in the definitions that people would give it. It has been sought after by peoples and written about in all kinds of circles for millennia. From the spiritual to the philosophical, to the practical wisdom of the world, and now to the current way of administrative knowledgeWisdom has captivated and intrigued many hearts. It still remains though; Wisdom is something tangible, unique and inspiring. So, let’s take a broad look.
Wisdom is timeless. The Bible tells us that Wisdom existed before God created the world; that wisdom, the embodiment of truth and natural law, was ‘written’ or designed before the concept of a mundane Creation (including the creation of ‘beings’). I guess it’s like acknowledging that things have always been the same as always; like the law of cause and effect: Do one thing and you might expect a certain result, that sort of thing. Wisdom from this point of view is the way things invariably work, not always, but most of the time, with some level of predictability. From this perspective, it is reliable and it is TRUE; is the way.
Wisdom is the truth. Think about it: Could you substitute the word Wisdom for Truth and vice versa? I’ve tried this out quite a bit in the recent past and found that it works most of the time. Ah, another word that is difficult to define! TRUE. Truth seems to have many varied definitions. For example, we have objective and subjective truth. Objective truth is absolute, irrefutable, and basically works 100 percent of the time; subjective truth, for example, is something that human beings have from our experience; as evidenced by our perceptions-It is partly true, but never quite true since our experience is limited. That is why we have such slightly different views than those around us. There are not one of us that you agree with one more all the time; even married couples and best friends have disagreements: we have different ‘truths’.
Wisdom from a ‘universal law’ position is true because it works that way most if not all of the time. Given enough time for a particular result to emerge, it does. Seen in this way, Truth can also be seen as Wisdom, due to its reliability and longevity. This is how it has worked for thousands of years. The truth always intrigues us; Why do some seemingly vague and non-objective truths seem to work over time?
Like the ‘law’ (or Wisdom) of sowing and reaping. We know why good things come back to us; Usually it is because the people we interact with want to return a kindness that we have given them, but there are so many factors that cloud the predictability of the Current Go out. We spiritual beings know it as truth and believe in it and practice it. People who aren’t as spiritual don’t necessarily believe in it and therefore don’t recognize it as true in the same way.
Thus, truth and wisdom often also require faith. We do not know that something, an action that we do, will turn out well, but we do it in faith; and our faith must be ‘great enough’ to face the eventual disappointment of not seeing the action turn out the way we had envisioned. Our faith is rewarded most of the time, or even some of the time. The person with the greatest faith continues to act (in wisdom and in faith) with almost the total absence of reason to continue; for all intents and purposes, the act is not working. Thus, in this situation, Wisdom (which is the truth) is added to faith, in the form of an act or series of acts, towards an end -we could call it applied wisdom.
wisdom is applied knowledge. This brings us to the most common definition of Wisdom: worldly wisdom. Truth (knowledge: knowing the truth) added to faith (application: the act of acting) equals wisdom. It is only prudent if it turns out that way – “the proof is in the pudding”, as they say. This seems to be the best basic world understanding of the term Wisdom. It’s like the best question of all: “What’s the smartest thing to do in this situation?” If we asked ourselves that more often, there would be a lot less pain in the world, because we would add faith to our knowledge and act diligently, doing what can do, or we would add knowledge to our faith and be more careful.
Thus, wisdom is applying the things we know as truth, the more or less objective or semi-objective truth; it happens this way almost all the time. This requires courage and discipline and a range of other character qualities.
wisdom applies common sense. A wise life should be the goal of every sensible being human-is the path of common sense. Common sense is said to be ‘not very common’! but in reality it is common; It seems like it’s not common because we humans are so predisposed to fail: it’s in our nature to fail once in a while.
To live wisely is to apply common sense and discipline through the values of diligence and prudence; it is to see the world from the point of view of shalom, which is from a state of tranquility, peace, personal fulfillment and comfort with oneself; it’s being in a state of balance: time, energy, and priorities all lined up and beautifully optimized; it is having the ability to sufficiently trust the result-faith as mentioned above; and finally, it is based on a firm foundation of respect: because we feel in our action that it is right, fair, fair, honorable and considerate.
Wisdom needs a lot of virtues to support its weight. Try these six above (diligence, prudence, shalom, balance, trust and respect) and see if Wisdom will represent you; all these virtues share an interdependence with Wisdom. There is no better reward for life itself than striving for the ‘wise path’. Wisdom is the best thing to invest in.
©2007 Steve Wickham