Wisdom

Does any among you need wisdom, brethren? Let him seek it -- from one William S. Preston Esquire, and Theodore Logan.

Bear with me a minute.  You may not recall the heinous protagonistic dudes of Bill and Ted’s excellent cinema franchise, unless you were also in high school when those films landed in theaters and caught Pastor Marcus’ message Sunday on 1 Kings as well. But if you’re going to talk high schoolers and ageless wisdom, well, middle age doesn’t bring everyone to maturity and some of us are going to go there in our minds.

Solomon in Proverbs 9:10 tells us, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” A surprisingly similar conclusion is found in the vein time-travel of Bill and Ted. They discover their history book as they search ancient Athens for Socrates (or So-Cratez) and learn that, “the only true wisdom consists in knowing that you know nothing.” To which Ted exultantly replies, “That’s us, dude!”

Waiting for the connection? Here it is. Fearing the Lord, and seeking his counsel and wisdom, often begins with our own realization and acceptance of how little we know without Him. Recall in 1 Kings 3:7, after God tells Solomon to ask Him for whatever he wants. The new king replies, “God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties.” Pastor Marcus parked on this sentence briefly in the message, and I want to do the same for a minute. This moment of humility is the beginning of Solomon’s greatness, and only in this state is he able to receive God’s amazing gift.  This works much the same as His other gifts – who receives salvation without first knowing you’re a sinner, or is able to minister effectively without first knowing our brothers and sisters need His help more than ours? Why should the gift of wisdom be any different?

Now if you went to school at any other time period and got a less dude-ified take on Greek history, you may recall Socrates a little differently. He begins his philosophy career after someone reportedly asks the Oracle at Delphi who has the most wisdom in Greece, and is told no one is wiser than Socrates of Athens. The incredulous Socrates, a stone-cutter by trade and recent veteran of military service, doesn’t believe this omen and spends much of his life trying to disprove it. Why? Because Socrates knows he knows nothing – and this self-awareness, as he tests the knowledge and beliefs of others through his famed dialectic method, gives him the advantage over other Greeks’ whose knowledge is founded on poor assumptions.

Be honest with yourself, about your need of God’s help and how far beyond your own thoughts His always are. That also came up in the message, and I find that principle best illustrated in an interlude of Job that reads, “When He (God) he made a decree for the rain and a path for the thunderstorm, then he looked at wisdom and appraised it, confirmed it and measured it out. And to the human race he said. ‘The fear of the Lord is wisdom. And to depart from evil, that is understanding.’ “(Job 28:26-28). A startlingly simple truth, from an infinite Creator who carries thoughts in His mind you and I could never grasp.  No one has understanding more than He who created it all – and such is his grace, then when you and I begin to shed our vain and feeble thoughts we can actually receive some of His own.

That’s us, dude!

Written by: Chad Halcom

Edited by: Tamara Sturdivant