Now that we are done with Acts, I am taking a day or two to read some Proverbs and to read a couple of things to change up the pace a little.  I think I am next going to dive into Romans, which will be another intense and probably really awesome read.  So, in the coming days, I will do my background studies and my read throughs and then we will dive into the text.

For today, I am reading Proverbs 14, and here are the lines that really jumped out at me this morning:

6 A scoffer seeks wisdom in vain,

but knowledge is easy for a man of understanding.

7 Leave the presence of a fool,

for there you do not meet words of knowledge.

8 The wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way,

but the folly of fools is deceiving.

9 Fools mock at the guilt offering,

but the upright enjoy acceptance.

What really speaks to me is that you can see the interaction between the heart and wisdom in this text.  I think we sometimes have a tendency to treat wisdom as a commodity, like it is something we can have and toss around and leverage for our own benefit, devoid of its connection to our faith and to our Creator.  In reality, wisdom is meant to be leveraged as a connection between God and the world around us.  God gives us wisdom so we can understand Him, not just the world.  Sure, we can leverage wisdom to live life better, but this gets at why I get annoyed when people call the Bible ‘life’s instruction manual’.  It isn’t that.  The Bible is God’s love story for humanity.  The instruction manual I am getting here soon that will come with my wife’s new exercise bike doesn’t care about me.  It doesn’t care about what I believe.  It is simply meant to instruct me on how to put the bike together.  The Bible is meant to draw me into relationship with God...not to tell me how to live a just life, or how to earn God’s trust - it is meant to demonstrate that God has already loved me and accepted me.

Looking at this passage, we can get the sense that fools not only reject wisdom, which we know intuitively, but we can see that wisdom is repelled by their way of living.  It is very similar to the way salvation eludes people.  It is there...God has sacrificed for you just like He sacrificed for me and for everyone else.  Wisdom is in the world for the taking.  However, you must be open to it.  You must be interested in it.  You must value it more than you value what’s in ‘the moment’; you must discipline yourself to see it.  Similarly, God’s love is there for the taking...He offers it freely.  But, you have to allow it into your life.  You must pursue a relationship with Him, just like you must pursue wisdom.  It requires discipline and self-sacrifice.  It is in the seeking where we meet God.  People ask, “How do I have a relationship with someone I can’t see or touch?”, and I would say, “If you get serious about pursuing God and seeking relationship with God, you’ll find that a key element to that is learning to live in wisdom...which is hard to do.  And, when it gets hard, that’s when you will understand the relationship with God thing - when you ‘need’ it, you’ll find it.”

Today I am reminded that wisdom is as much about knowing as it is about trusting.  It as much about relationship with God as it is about information about the world.  When my heart is opened to God, by default, my mind is opened to wisdom.  They are two-in-the-same.  And, I must pursue them simultaneously in my daily life.