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Tuesday, March 7, 2017

...................Whimsical Wednesdays............

"Knowledge speaks, but Wisdom listens."
                                                       - Jimi Hendrix
These simple, well-put words have surfaced from the shadows of my mind to the forefront of my heart. Their truth rings through the tangled thoughts and trite expressions that tear our culture apart today. 
It is often difficult to decipher the difference between knowledge and wisdom, I suppose that the separation lies in the location. Knowledge is head work, wisdom is heart work. Simply put, knowledge is an award for the pursuit of learning. Wisdom on the other hand, is a gift given to the humble seeking heart. Knowledge takes many different forms in our society. The artist interprets their version of the truth. The scholar invents questions never meant to be answered, and the philosopher questions his purpose. We listen to their pleas for attention and offer up our concentration to the desperate pursuit of knowledge on the altar of progress. This way of thinking is not segregated to the secular world, this mindset is often applied in the church today. Pastor's and teacher's wield knowledge in a desperate attempt to become more appealing to the public. There are several issues hidden in the folds of this practice. The first being that Knowledge is human gained, and anything with a significant amount of influence from man's fallen nature holds the definite potential for pride. The second point comes from the Bible in Ecclesiastes 12:12 which warns, 
"My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh." This is not to say that knowledge is evil... But rather that knowledge without the proper dose of wisdom is not profitable to the soul, it tends to produce legalism, and religion; the very principles Jesus came to abolish. If we could have 'earned' Heaven, or worked our way out of the pit of sin, the cross wouldn't have been necessary. The cup of suffering could have passed. But that's not how history panned out. It pleased the Father to crush the son because the God of hope is a champion of the helpless. Where do we come off thinking that we can earn it? How dare we dream of doing it on our own? Why do we feel that we must portray the perfect image of ourselves at all times. Do we really have it all together? Personally, I believe that my beauty is found in  my willing brokenness before the "offense" of the bloodied battered cross. It captivates me daily with it's perfect mixture of suffering, sorrow, sacrifice, shame, boldness, brokenness, bravery, beauty, LOVE. So I kneel in the shadow of the cross and accept from this symbol of death the life that it offers. 
I want to mirror Jesus's love to the world... And one of the things that I love about Jesus, is that when the crowds gathered and longed to talk to Him, He didn't interrupt, He didn't disregard them, He didn't listen with the intent of responding. He showed that He cherished them in His focused listening. I want to do the same. I want to listen to others as a wisdom gleaner... Will you join me? Together we can reignite the fire of the church if we accept the gift of unity that Christ offers. Let us set out today determined to live in the wisdom and love that has been lavished on us since before the start of time. The world may call us child-like, but then, isn't that the ultimate goal? Perhaps we shouldn't focus on dissecting God's word, but rather set our hearts on living it out. After all, once you start dissecting something, it's already dead. Today I want to accept the word of God without question. As Evelyn Underhill best said, 
"If God were small enough to be understood, He would not be big enough to be worshiped."
I do not wnat to become so entangled in the pursuit of knowing everything ABOUT God that I miss the experience of ACTUALLY knowing God. 

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