Wise Beyond Words

Where’s wisdom when we need it? There are plenty of smart people, and even more experts who can tell us (whether we ask for it or not) how to make a smart choice.  There’s also the great business slogan that does have some merit in itself, “Work harder, not smarter.” 

            We actually need to work wisely.  We need to pursue wisdom in the choices we make.

            You can earn a Ph.D. (or a Doctor of Ministry degree, as I did).  But no school offers a W.D.—a wisdom doctorate.  Some of us can earn it, I think, through the School of Hard Knocks.

            In my daily prayer exercise, Morning Prayer from the Book of Common Prayer, the Hebrew Scripture reading is from the Wisdom of Solomon.  That writing is part of the Apocrypha—works of doubtful authorship.  These also are writings that didn’t make the submission deadline for rabbis compiling what we know as the Old Testament.  Yet they are regarded as writings of great value and inspiration.

            Just yesterday, the reading defined “wisdom.”  Solomon is recorded as saying that he began to breathe in wisdom and to soak it in. The Hebrew word is feminine in nature, and the Greek word, Sophia, is feminine also.  Wisdom is a reflection of who God is, and is a gift to all who seek her.  Solomon prays earnestly for the gift which helps to see into the way things really are.  Then, in Wisdom 7:22b-23, wisdom is described:  “There is in her a spirit that is intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, mobile, clear, unpolluted, distinct, invulnerable, loving the good, keen, irresistible, beneficent, humane, steadfast, sure, free from anxiety, all-powerful, overseeing all, and penetrating through all spirits that are intelligent, pure, and altogether subtle.”

            How can we become wise?  Wisdom grows in us when we reflect prayerfully on the Scriptures and also upon life.  When we can allow wisdom to penetrate our hard hearts and closed minds, then we can understand more and more what seems so often to be beyond understanding.  Wisdom comes from spiritual maturity.  Wisdom comes from living in a community of faith—which is the Church at its best.

            In this passage, one quality of wisdom is that it is intelligent.  But that does not mean the accumulation of information or membership in Mensa.  Intelligence certainly involves the gathering of information in many different ways.  Wisdom involves knowledge and insight.  A wise person is able to sort through information and reflect on its meaning and to reflect.  The best reflection happens in silence.

            That’s why the best and rarest qualities of wisdom, the practice of wisdom, can make one wise beyond words.