Ah-Ha! Fleeting moments of Wisdom

"Ah-ha! Now I have more questions..."

I've no understanding of the concept of wisdom, as far as I can tell. I've heard it used in ways that make  me feel, "Ah-ha!" But never in ways that make me think, "Ah-ha! Now I understand!"

I was drinking a Yogi Tea the other day with some friends. Yogi®  writes inspirational quotes on the string paper, and we enjoy reading them. The ceremony goes: talk and laugh until the tea has cooled enough to sip. Only after taking a sip, may the quote be read. Once read silently, it should then be read aloud and discussed.

On this particular day, my quote was "Wisdom becomes knowledge when it is personal experience."

Ah-ha! Now I have more questions and feel further from understanding. Excellent.

Knowledge has never been the real focus of my pursuits. Nor has wisdom. I want understanding. I'll spend hours, weeks, researching and gathering knowledge if it will lead to understanding. But once discovered, it's the understanding that sticks with me, not the knowledge. (This has a tendency of making it difficult to share that understanding with others, I'll say.)

I'll spend an entire summer skateboarding, but once I understand the mechanics, I lose interest. I've spent years practicing latte art; now that I understand it, I am bored. I don't seek to perfect the skills, only practice until my mind grasps them.

Are these practices wise? I'm thinking not.

There's a correlation between knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. There's also a contrast. The urge to pursue these contrasts and correlations has been growing. I need to understand them, because I want to understand wisdom. Thus, I share the rest of this post not because I necessarily want you to read it, but because it's a piece to the puzzle that, to ignore, would lead me to incomplete understanding.


Runners of the race many years ahead of me, have described my writing as wisdom lately. Occasionally, they've even described me as wise. I'm unsettled by this. I need to understand it.

Let me note, these are people who've been sprinting since before I even got the urge to move with more purpose than a mosey. Those still running with me, the friends who embarked on the race at me side - not one has described me as wise. (See Hebrews 12: 1-2 for reference on the race I've mentioned.)

There's no lack of lack of love or appreciation, it's simply never crossed their minds. I go to my peers to work through issues I have no experience or understanding in. We may find wisdom together, but I usually bring foolishness to the table.

Interestingly, it's not the writing on this blog being described as wise (so don't go perusing lol); usually I write here with a semi-conscious abandonment to any effort at wisdom. It's brief snippets of writing I share as Fleshbook comments or status updates.

Now that I think of it, those snippets are written from experiences I've had, or from thoughts I've had on my experiences. Ah-ha! Correlation...

I asked Dad to talk to me about the topic of offense, yesterday. I randomly flipped open my Bible and read Proverbs 18. Offense was directly mentioned in Prov 18:19, "A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city: and their contentions are like the bars of a castle."

For some reason I was compelled to continue reading past that verse, even though the topic of my inquiry had been revealed. In Prov 19, I was struck by three particular verses due to an experience my friend had during a prayer pow wow recently. Together, they read:

A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaks lies shall not escape (19:5). A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaks lies shall not escape (9). The king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion; but his favor is as dew upon the grass (12).

"Breathe on the Spark" by Hannah Whalen. bbhannah.com

Today I asked Dad to talk to me about Wisdom. I opened the Trusty Book to the pen I'd left marking Prov 18 and 19. My first thought was to flip somewhere at random (I do this when I'm bored and don't really feel like reading), but my eyes were caught again by the roaring of a lion.

I began reading backward through the verses, and stopped in the midst of the poetic rendering above: "He that gets wisdom loves his own soul; he that keeps understanding shall find good (19:8)."

Wisdom. Proverbs. Duh.

I continued reading backwards through to chapter 17.  It's occurred to me that the contrast between wisdom, knowledge, and understanding correlates directly to the contrast between body, soul, and spirit.

From here, I'll be reading Prov 17-19 forwards, and perhaps beyond. If any new thoughts are stirred, I'll certainly share them. Until then, please feel free to comment with any thoughts that have stirred in you. (Hey, I didn't say I'd complete the puzzle here.)