Wednesday's Big Idea: Wisdom (and Unity)

We kicked off prayer today in that realm of inside-out unity, the heart of which is worship. Key verses were Matthew 6:9 ("...Our Father in Heaven, Hallowed be your name."), Psalm 133 ("Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity...") and Malachi 4:6 ("He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.")

A clear sub-theme is coming out, though, as we pray for various people in the group: Wisdom. Many of us have big decisions to make, life-affecting choices or don't know what's coming, but need clear-mindedness. Proverbs tells us that "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." And I am heartened that we are learning that lesson. All choices must be put in front of the Lord and our job is walk in faith and obedience as much as we are humanly (and supernaturally) able.

I don't know how God grants wisdom - the mechanism, I mean. I think it somehow becomes part of us and we don't even realize it. It's not as if we can study and become wise; although information can inform our choices. I think it is more a discipline that is made up of patience, humility, listening and discerning.

Since it is hard to pin down what wisdom is, perhaps we can ask what the measure of wisdom is. A person is wise if...(fill in the blank). Working backwards we can say "I will know this is a wise decision if x happens". Perhaps it is less tangible than that, but we know it is something God gives (James 1) as one of His good and perfect gifts.

If we have it, shouldn't we know? I think we do know, but sometimes what we are looking for isn't so much wisdom as a signal flare pointing a direction. I don't think wisdom is knowing what the outcome of some choice will be, but rather the process we use to make that choice. We may not know where choice x will lead, but we can know that we sought God in prayer, thought through the consequences and possible even had a plan b in case choice x fails. I am again reminded that our life is about who God wants us to BE and not about what he wants us to DO. As my friend's wife wrote once: we are human beings, not human doings. Doing comes out of being - not the other way around.

Wired

Woohoo! Internet has come to MY house! The cable guy came hooked it up and now I no longer must communicate with stone tablets from my cave in inner southeast. Good thing, too, because my chisel was getting dull. Now if only we could invent fire - then I could cook the flesh of the slain tofu. Oh well, one step at a time.

This is my first post from home, which is pretty exciting. Whole new worlds have opened up to me. Limitless possibilities. Right now, though, I need to go to bed. Prayer starts at 6:00AM...

That Empty Feeling

Just a quick note to get down for digital posterity my thoughts on emptiness and filling. This springboards off of the last post about absence and presence, but is a slightly different spin on it.

We often pray to be "filled with the Holy Spirit". We would like our lives to be filled with blessing, abundant, or "full" as in "he lived a full life." But in order to be filled we must first be empty. We need to empty out all the things that are taking up space that don't really need to be there.

I think of a garage. Somehow, garages always fill up with stuff we think we need, stuff we thing we're going to throw out or stuff that we don't want in our homes proper. Every once in a while, we need to clean out our garages or else there's so much junk that we can't even get in or out of the place. Blessing and filling is like that. We need to clear out some spiritual space (or rather, let God clear it out for us) in order to be filled with the new, good stuff.

Just like a garage, we hold onto things for far too long even if they take up space and we haven't used them in years. We need to have ears to hear God saying "get rid of that old, ratty thing" and the obedience and faith to do it. God has something better in store.

There is more to this than I am able to express, so maybe I'll continue on this when I have some more coherent thoughts. Until then, be encouraged. When you are empty, God wants to fill you up. You didn't really need that box of ripped t-shirts, anyway.