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Pursue Wisdom

/ Bill Jones / 29 Comments
English: The Wisdom of Solomon, by James Jacqu...

The Wisdom of Solomon

This is part of the ChristianWriters.com blog chain, with the June theme of “Pursuit”. Please check out the list to the right for other blogs during the month.

Sharon and I were checking out the furniture before the auction. As we walked through the aisles, she noticed a beautiful oak chest-of-drawers. She called me over to see it and let me know she loved it. Of course, since she loved it, I did too – so, we decided to bid on it and determined what our maximum bid could be.

About an hour into the auction, they took the chest to the front of the room. Sharon squeezed my arm and whispered, “There it is!”

The bidding started and we let a couple of rounds go by before we jumped in. The bids were lower and slower than we expected and were still much below our planned price. I made a bid that was countered by a slightly higher one. We looked at each other, and since we were still well within our limit, I raised the bid.

We waited excitedly as the seconds ticked by with no other response – then, really got excited when we heard “sold”. The chest was ours for half the cost we thought it would be!

We relaxed and settled back triumphantly to watch more of the auction. The helpers at the front picked up a chest and walked away with it. Then, two others picked up “our” chest and moved it to the center. The auctioneer started with “now, we have this beautiful oak chest – what am I bid?”

I stood up and started to shout, “Wait, we just bought that one!”, but quickly deduced the mistake was ours. We had not been paying attention through most of the auction, and now realized “our” oak chest had been in the waiting area where the items coming up next were set.

We hadn’t even noticed the chest that really was now ours. I had to go walk through the aisles of sold stuff and search for our number. I found a plain pine chest of drawers – probably worth what we paid for it, but we had no desire to take it home. We left it there on consignment to be sold at the next auction.

The results of the waylaid process were:

  • The pine chest sold at the next auction, but when they took the seller’s fee out, we lost money.
  • The oak chest sold for about twice what we said we could afford to pay for it, so our plan wasn’t realistic from the beginning.
  • We learned the lesson that we need to be sure what we’re bidding on before we jump in.

Our pursuit of the chest had gone astray, and it was obvious a pursuit of wisdom would have served us better.

“Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore, get wisdom…” Proverbs 4:7 NKJV

We spend much of our lives pursuing knowledge – through school, workshops, reading, and training at work or elsewhere. That’s not a bad thing, because knowledge is necessary for what we need and want to do.

The Bible has several passages that emphasize the importance of knowledge. But, as critical as it is, knowledge isn’t an end in itself. As the verse above states, we should take knowledge and move beyond it to wisdom – wisdom is to be our principal pursuit.

It takes wisdom to understand that we need knowledge, and to determine what knowledge we need. It takes wisdom to understand how to use knowledge. A great example of that is Ephesians 4:15 where Paul encourages us to speak the truth in love. Speaking the truth is knowledge. Speaking it in love is wisdom.

It is wise to understand that having more wisdom would be helpful. (As I get older, I am getting wiser, if only because I can see how much more wisdom I need). Like King Solomon, who showed that God had already given him some wisdom – he had enough to know he needed to ask for more.

Where does wisdom come from? God does use situations (like auctions) to help us learn wisdom. But, the principal place for us to pursue wisdom is in God’s Word, for it is wisdom. Getting wisdom, as stated in the Proverbs verse above, is learning, understanding and obeying God’s Word.

The auction experience did make Sharon and me wiser (at a cost of money and embarrassment). But, a better way to pursue wisdom isn’t through experience. King David wrote in Psalm 119:98-100, that God, through His commandments, had made him wiser than his enemies. Meditating on God’s testimonies and obeying God’s precepts gave him more understanding than his teachers or his elders.

Then in that same passage, we are given instructions on how we should be guided, not just in our pursuit of wisdom, but in all our pursuits here on earth:

“Your Word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path” Psalms 119:105

Pursue wisdom by the light of God’s Word.

Much Ado About Half of Nothing

/ Bill Jones / 4 Comments
Typebars in a 1920s typewriter

Typebars in a 1920s typewriter (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I don’t know when it happened, but somewhere along the way we lost one of the spaces after a sentence. Back in high-school typing class (yes, it was many years ago), the teacher drilled into our heads that there should be two spaces after a typed sentence. “…type, type, type, type, type, period, space, space!”

However, now I have learned that only one space is needed. As I understand, it comes with the difference between using computers/printers and typewriters. The modern combination can separate the letters depending on their width, while the outdated typewriter takes up the same width with each letter. Thus, with the typewriter, to ensure a readable width at the ends and beginnings of sentences, two spaces were necessary.

Since a space is actually nothing, we can say that now we only need half as much nothing as we did before. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.

We often hear, and say, there’s nothing to watch on TV. Having half as much nothing to watch doesn’t solve any problems. “Nothing” is the common answer to the question “Whatcha doing?” Doing half as much nothing doesn’t seem to matter one way or the other.

Perhaps Shakespeare’s play will need to be renamed “Much Ado About Half of Nothing”. And, if we’re able to do a task quickly, it may be done in “half of nothing flat”.

You get the idea – losing a space doesn’t have much serious effect. It just requires some practice to get in the habit.

But, when considering “nothing” we are given some principles to follow:

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 NKJV

Nothing should interrupt the peace of God within us. In everything that happens in life, which will include trials and tribulations, Christ Jesus is with us, and we should be ever thankful for His presence and power.

 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 1 Timothy 6:7 NKJV

We are not here to gather things for the sake of gathering things. (This is part of the passage including “the love of money is the root of all evil”.) Our pursuits should not be for things but, as verse 8 tells us, if we have food and clothing we should be content. Then, verse 11 spells out that our pursuits should be righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.

We can pursue no thing, and we can be anxious about nothing (or half of nothing), and find the peace of God – but it’s only through His presence and power that we ever find that contentment that the human mind can’t understand.

Helping “Young” Christians

/ Bill Jones / 2 Comments
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) logo

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Speed dating

  I tried a form of speed dating in Atlanta a few weeks ago (please keep reading, it’s not exactly what you think). I checked the “available” list and filled out my “matchmaking” schedule ahead of time as required. The room was filled with 40 or 50 tables. Each session gave 15 minutes at a table – time to present your good qualities and hear about the other’s activities and plans – then move on to another table.

            My first date was with the Corps of Engineers’ Mobile District (What? Surely, you didn’t think I was really speed dating!). We made introductions and a few seconds of small talk, then, jumped right in to the “date”. As the two representatives read our consulting engineering company’s capabilities statement, they quickly moved into the “it’s not you, but it’s me” speech – “sorry, we don’t purchase engineering services – they come through so and so.” But, they did regret the situation, and they committed to passing the information along to “so and so”. I thanked them for their time and help, and we pleasantly parted company.  

            The rest of the sessions throughout the day were a mixture of results. Some echoed the first one, some were moderately promising, and a few stood out as a good match worth pursuing.

The matchmaking sessions were part of a Small Business conference sponsored by the US Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps, other government agencies like Homeland Security, and large (read that huge) prime contractors were looking for small businesses to help them out. The small businesses, like us, were looking for work.

Our company, and especially me, are newcomers to this government contracting – so far, not really sure we want to get heavily involved. There are so many buzz words and acronyms it sounds like gibberish at times. Finding the right person or people to talk with for help isn’t an obvious process.

Surprisingly, the fifteen minute sessions were helpful. At each one, I learned more. The people on the other side of the table were knowledgeable and wanted to help. They simplified terms, asked and answered questions for clarification, and took me a little farther on the journey toward understanding.

If we’re “experienced” Christians we should keep those thoughts in mind. We can ramble off into buzzwords (Christianese as it’s sometimes called) and provide confusion instead of help to those coming along behind us. Instead, we need to make sure they know we’re willing and able to assist them, and take time (even fifteen minutes is good) and ask and answer questions for clarification. Our responsibility is to use those fifteen minutes, not for speed dating, but to take them a little farther on the journey toward understanding.

And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. 1 Thessalonians 5:14 ESV

Do We Cover Ourselves With Religious Tablecloths?

/ Bill Jones / 4 Comments
Woe unto You, Scribes and Pharisees

Woe unto You, Scribes and Pharisees (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As my wife, Sharon, and I wandered through the local discount store, a “50% OFF!” sign caught my eye. I picked up a package from the stack and read the label: “Religious Tablecloth”. I wasn’t sure how you make a tablecloth be religious, but apparently someone figured it out. There it was on the shelf for sale. I considered buying it and watching it to see how well it did in being religious (but, of course, it was only given that label because of “The Last Supper” design that was on it.)

Through years of helping Sharon decorate for Church functions, I have learned that you can cover up a lot of things with a tablecloth – like a stack of hymnals, a super-sized can of green beans or an old, nearly collapsed cardboard box. Then, whatever you set on it, from a flower arrangement to a group of candlesticks, will look good and you won’t see what’s under the tablecloth. I guess if you put a religious tablecloth over something, it will look good and appear to be religious too.

Jesus often condemned the Scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy. (He repeated the phrase “Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” so many times in the 23rd chapter of Matthew that I sometimes call it the “Woe” Chapter). He said they were like whitewashed tombs – beautiful on the outside but unclean on the inside. “So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” (Matt 23:28 ESV)

We Christians can also be guilty of hypocrisy – of hiding under a religious tablecloth. We might outwardly appear to be following God, and even sincerely believe ourselves that we are. But in the place where it counts, in our heart, we may be envious or greedy or in other ways sinful. While we may be successful in hiding that from others, and deceiving ourselves for a while, we can never hide it from God. “…Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.” (Luke 12:1-2 ESV)

God knows our heart so there is no need to try covering it up. The best thing to do is to be obedient to Him, search our heart and confess our sins. God’s Word has given us this marvelous promise: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9 ESV)  If we trust in that promise and rely on His power to cleanse us, we won’t need a religious tablecloth to cover us. For what is within us will be revealed and be beautiful – a righteousness not from ourselves, but a righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ Himself! “Filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” (Php 1:11 ESV)