| “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.” |
| —James 1:5 |
“He’s very smart, but not very wise.”
That’s the description I once heard a professor give, regarding one of the students in his class. He was referring to an individual who had a significantly high level of intelligence, but whose behavior—in class and outside of class—seemed to indicate that he did not know how to appropriately apply his intelligence in a wide variety of situations. Though I was not this student, as I listened to the professor’s words, I sympathized more than a little bit with the student in question. Please let me explain why:
I have spent most of my life showered with the gifts from God of being able to almost instantly understand how machines work, how people think and react, and how systems perform. But, I am painfully and startlingly socially inept. As a result, instead of people welcoming my help in dealing with problems they may face, they often shun me and avoid me, as if I had some dreaded disease. In social situations, I usually find it best to hide in some corner of the room, or to leave a social situation as quickly as possible.
While the specific details of my personal situation is somewhat different than the situation of the student referred to in the professor’s comment, I certainly caught the drift of the professor’s analysis. Here was a young man who had a high intellectual ability. But, he did not have the wisdom to always apply that intelligence in the most fruitful and productive way. It didn’t matter how smart he was, he could not gain the most benefit from his intelligence because he lacked wisdom.
The lack of wisdom can certainly produce painful results when someone—anyone—is thrust into a role of leadership and simply cannot apply the knowledge he, or she, may have in an effective way. That is what the Apostle James learned, as he began to work with the leaders in the local churches that were springing up all over the then-known-world. Time and again, James was faced with local church leadership that was harming the Christian spiritual formation of the people in those early churches. The local leaders lacked wisdom. This is what prompted James to write these words in his letter to the churches, as found in James 1:5:
If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
God is The Generous Wisdom-Giver. He is the One who will supply whatever a leader may lack to enable that leader to perform his, or her, duties in the best possible way. And, God’s desire to give wisdom applies to everyone who follows Jesus, not just to leaders. All of us need to have godly wisdom in order to represent the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in a way that the Holy Spirit will use to communicate with the people who cross the pathway of our lives.
At the beginning of this new day, let’s not hesitate to ask God to give us His precious wisdom. Then, let’s use that wisdom in proclaiming the wonderful qualities of our new life in Christ to those we meet along the highway of life.
