Have you ever tried to write an entire paper on one single word? Well this morning as I sat down to my cup of coffee and checked my facebook page I noticed I had a message from a good friend. I opened it up and it was a message asking for homework help. She asked a few other friends of ours and myself to write a paragraph defining the word wisdom. I immediately hit reply and started writing only to realize that it is a lot harder to do than I first thought. To define a word like wisdom in only one paragraph is impossible! You could write an entire paper on the word.
This reminded me of a sermon from my old pastor, Mark Oshman, in Okinawa. One night he was preaching he told a story about his college days. In one of his classes his teacher gave the assignment to write an 10 page paper on the word amen. He at first thought that was an impossible task, but as he began to study the word, in preparation for his paper, he realized that it was not impossible to write 10 pages, however he found it was difficult to not go over 10 pages.
Another man I highly respect, Louie Giglio, preached a sermon on meditating on a single word for an entire day. Sounds ridiculous to think of only one word all day, but totally plausible. He used the example of the word BE. He went into how God is TO Be. We say things like, "Will you be there?" As in will your existence, your body, be present at the location in question. The dictionary defines Be as...
"1.to exist or live: Shakespeare's “To be or not to be” is the ultimate question.
2.to take place; happen; occur: The wedding was last week.
3.to occupy a place or position: The book is on the table.
4.to continue or remain as before: Let things be"
God is existence, he takes places everywhere that one can occupy and then some, he remains as he has from the beginning. He is unchanging. (JB 23:13)
Anyway now that I am done rambling here is what I wrote:
"Wisdom is something that only old men with long white beards have. Not really, but when I was a child that is what I thought it was. Now that I am older I realize just how complex this word is. To define it with all of it's ramifications is impossible in only one paragraph; but I can scratch the surface in saying that wisdom is the knowledge of what is true in conjunction with just judgment and discernment. A wise person uses discernment to figure out wether the people around them are speaking truth to them, or not; also using it to justly judge their own actions as well as others actions. Wisdom is the truth inside of you that keeps you from doing wrong and causes you to accumulate more wisdom for,"the wise lay up knowledge..." (Prv 10:14) Only a fool claims to know everything. The most important thing to know about wisdom is that, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight." (Prv 9:10)."
How would you define Wisdom?
