where wisdom?

You see it a lot during this election cycle: people with opposite views both convinced of their own infallible insights. Most of the book of Job is made up of that kind of argument between Job and his friends.

It led Job to ask this question: “ Where then does wisdom come from? Where does understanding dwell? It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing, concealed even from the birds in the sky. Destruction and Death say, ‘Only a rumor of it has reached our ears.’ God understands the way to it and he alone knows where it dwells for he views the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. “Job 28:20-24

This begs the question, where do I turn for wisdom? If you answer based on where I spend the most time gathering information, then I guess the Associated Press, the Wall Street Journal, CNN and Fox, Facebook and Twitter are it. I read the news, discuss things with friends, listen to the talking heads, and draw my own conclusions.

The problem with that is that only God knows where wisdom can be found. To offset the hours I spend consuming and discussing news, I spend minutes with God. That means that I’m closer to conventional wisdom than the Sophia of Proverbs. And conventional wisdom is to true wisdom what pop culture is to the arts.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Only God can give it to me. And the only way to God is through Jesus - “No one comes to the Father but by me,” remember?

To be truly wise, I need to talk things over with Jesus. I need to bring those concerns to him, lay out my confusion, and spend time listening. I need to spend at least enough time doing that to balance out the worldly wisdom I consume. I need to; will I?