Monday, December 03, 2012
Killing Wisdom
Justin Taylor:
In my experience wisdom comes with experience, not understanding. Wisdom is not something you know or understand - wisdom is about what you do with what you know and understand. For example. When I was young I thought that many areas of scientific inquiry should be followed simply because they were interesting. Yes, I knew and understood that there were serious downsides as well as upsides to the research, but I assumed that becasue I, and others, knew and understood the downsides, they could be avoided. As my adult life has unfolded, I have found I was wrong. The wisdom I have gained in the ensuing years now tells me that some research simply should not be pursued.
If we attempt to systematize and organize wisdom we create a box around what we know and understand that often can not be penetrated by the experience that life gives us. Our experiences have to fit into the framework we have built - if they don't they are ignored, wisdom lost.
Sometimes our efforts at understanding are really efforts at control. Sometimes we need to let God work on us without any idea what is happening. It's cliche' but sometimes we really do have to "let go and let God."
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The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology is one of my favorite journals, in part because each quarterly issue is devoted to a theme, allowing a subject to be examined from multiple angles. You can see a number of samples online.The example then goes on to have an outline and a flow chart to understand wisdom?! Am I the only one to find this odd?
In my experience wisdom comes with experience, not understanding. Wisdom is not something you know or understand - wisdom is about what you do with what you know and understand. For example. When I was young I thought that many areas of scientific inquiry should be followed simply because they were interesting. Yes, I knew and understood that there were serious downsides as well as upsides to the research, but I assumed that becasue I, and others, knew and understood the downsides, they could be avoided. As my adult life has unfolded, I have found I was wrong. The wisdom I have gained in the ensuing years now tells me that some research simply should not be pursued.
If we attempt to systematize and organize wisdom we create a box around what we know and understand that often can not be penetrated by the experience that life gives us. Our experiences have to fit into the framework we have built - if they don't they are ignored, wisdom lost.
Sometimes our efforts at understanding are really efforts at control. Sometimes we need to let God work on us without any idea what is happening. It's cliche' but sometimes we really do have to "let go and let God."
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