One of my biggest prayers recently has been for wisdom. This is not because I have never desired wisdom before, but rather, the older I get, and the more life experiences I have, the more I recognize the need for wisdom. While one can amass a great degree of education and be highly intelligent, this does not necessarily mean that one has wisdom. In fact, the Bible says that wisdom comes from God. As one who has attended some of this nation’s top academic institutions, I have observed countless times, highly intelligent people who lacked wisdom, and thus failed to understand or handle certain situations appropriately. They grasped the problem on an intellectual level, but their lack of wisdom prevented them from grasping the issue on a deeper level. In other words, wisdom and intelligence are not interchangeable. They both provide different degrees of understanding and the presence of both in an individual is ideal.
Therefore, my desire for wisdom is driven by my desire to gain this deeper level of understanding. Even though education, sacred texts and the counsel of others are all great sources of guidance, there are moments in life where these sources do not provide direct guidance. For instance, deciding which school to attend, whether or not to marry a person, or how to handle a conflict with a loved one, are questions whose answers you won’t find in a book or one can decide strictly based on intellect. In those moments, one must rely on wisdom in deciding which course of action to pursue.
I have found myself in this position recently, and it has forced me to reflect on the different ways wisdom functions in my life, and how do I fine tune my ability to operate in wisdom. One such way is listening to that still small voice from within. What I mean by this is that there have been numerous occasion where I was either about to choose a particular plan of action, or say something to someone, but before I could act, there was an internal prodding or thought that caused me to pause. I am not simply describing worry or being paranoid, but rather an intuitive feeling I received. Although I did not know why I hesitated, or could precisely pinpoint facts that justified my hesitation, I nonetheless found myself uneasy with continuing my course of action. At that point, I had the choice to either continue anyway, or to wait and use the extra time to further contemplate my actions. Typically, I have found that when I continue, despite my reservations, I end up regretting it. Alternatively, when I pause to reflect instead of ignoring my hesitation, rarely does it hurt me; rather it has led to better results.
Perhaps you can relate to this experience too. There are times when you want to act, but that still small voice appears and says no. In that moment you must choose whether to act or not. I am beginning to understand, after spending too many times ignoring that voice and suffering the consequences, that using that voice as an indication to pause and rethinking my actions, is a function of wisdom. Wisdom helps us understand when our intellect fails. Intellectually, there may be no reason not to pursue an action, but wisdom encourages you to listen to your intuitive self because it senses or has processed information differently than your intellect. Therefore, I would encourage you to listen for and listen to that still small voice that arises in certain moments. You may ultimately decide to continue your actions, but you will have at least given yourself the chance to further process, intellectually and intuitively. That in turn is more likely to produce results that are both wise and smart, and at the end of the day, that is the best kind of decision you can make.
–Until Next Time–
Palooke
