Wisdom (study Proverbs 1 & 2)

You must have a hobby. Everyone does. If you have known me, you know I am a gold panner. It is one of those hobbies that cause you to do more work than you would ever volunteer to do. If you put that amount of labour into maintaining your home, you would be viewed as one of those meticulous neighbours who manicures their yards. I don’t. So why do I gold pan? What gets me up early in the morning to drive miles into the mountains, to stand in cold water all day long, to move small boulders with a crowbar, to carry twenty pounds of gravel at a time, to work through it in the water till the skin on my finger tips become raw, to bend over most of the day until standing up straight is a slow and painful process? - Well, many things. I love the isolation, the beauty of the land and river, the adventure, the time to think and process, and the exercise. Keeping that in mind, Solomon made a statement that was almost a rebuke to me. At the very least, it was a profound invitation.

Every now and again, we meet wise people. When they speak, we listen. It seems they have an inside track that takes them to deeper places than we have considered. Solomon explained to me how these people gained those insights. The one line that jumped out at me said, they “search for it as for hidden treasure.”

I do a lot for hidden treasure. Now I ask myself what I am willing to do for wisdom? An acquaintance of mine is a very wise man. When asked if he had a mentor, he went into his study, showed a vast library and said, “I have read every one of them.”

Solomon opened the access to wisdom for you and for me. He stated that “wisdom calls aloud in the open air and raises her voice in the public places; she calls out at street corners and speaks out at entrances to city gates.(1:20-21)” It is not hard to find. It is everywhere. It is calling out to us and is readily available. But…there are distractions. There are excuses for not understanding. There are even lies we have come to believe about ourselves. Possibly lies like, “I’m not smart.” “I couldn’t do that.” “I’m not a reader.”

“How long, you whose lives have no purpose, will you love thoughtless living?(1:22)”

Hobbies are wonderful to have. They build into our lives. This isn’t so much about hobbies as it is about our pursuit of wisdom. We are invited into very deep places with God. He states, “I will pour out my spirit to you, I will make my words known to you.(1:23)”But do we want it? Do we want it as much as hidden treasure?

“Receive, my words and store my commands inside you, paying attention to wisdom, inclining your mind toward understanding … call for insight … for discernment … seek it as you would silver … Then you will understand the fear of ADONAIand find knowledge of God … Then you will understand righteousness, justice, fairness and every good path. For wisdom will enter your heart, knowledge will be enjoyable for you, discretion will watch over you, and discernment will guard you.(2:1-5, 9-11)”

Has anyone ever told you to think before you act? Or, “It’s not what you say, but how you say it?” And have you ever believed that pursuing mindless things more than wisdom doesn’t dumb you down at all? The reality is that we become like what we expose ourselves to. We can say that others are wiser. Yet I suspect they are wise because they value wisdom. The invitation is to become of lover of what is right, true, good, pure, wholesome and wise.