Wednesday, September 8, 2010

At the head of the noisy streets, she cries out..

















It could be written about through eternity, but yet I'm finding it more simple as the days wear on. For truly wisdoms secrets are tucked neatly into our ordinary experiences. It doesn't take being well traveled, well-learned, or well-known; it's taking the simple adversary and prosperity in this life, and being changed by it. Because this is where your heart is tested, and where the truth of your heart is revealed. In the simple crying of an infant, and how you react to it. The long line at the grocery store. The guy who cuts you off on the road. The professor who denounces everything that you whole-heartedly believe. Seeing a couple holding hands. Witnessing an argument. Getting a compliment. Giving a compliment. Someone gossiping to you. Getting a promotion. Stardom.

Are you patient at heart?
Proud at heart?
Angry at heart?
Self-seeking?

The answer is, yes, yes, yes, and yes.

It isn't a mystery, it's truth.
Think about a child for just a second ..

Patience? "But MOOOMMMM, I want itttttt NOOWWWWW!"
Angry? Cue the 1. banging fist tantrum 2. slamming door 3. biting ...
Proud? "I can do anything you can do, better! I can do anything better than YOU!"
Self-seeking? "But it's MINEEEEE!"


And I think realizing and admitting to the state of your heart, is the foundation that wisdom sits upon. Because it's about knowing yourself, and knowing others.
Not about perfection, but the act of being perfected.

The child isn't taught these inner quirks, this IS the child. And as this little wonder begins to grow, we teach them from what we've learned, and maybe not learned, ourselves.
Trying to work out these pieces in them that we know aren't good. For, if we continued to let them do what they naturally want to, they would fall fast into an ugly root of bitterness, selfishness, hatred, and the like. To give them over to the desire of their heart would only ruin them.
But can they see that?

No.

They see you as unfair, wrong, mean, and unjust. They see their will, as the only possible way of life.
But wise eyes watching over them know better.


The Bible often points to the heart's Creator as one who tests it, weighs it, and knows it. The everyday walk of this life is wisdom for the taking. He is taking a heart that is unpurified and misdirected, and leading it towards love and repentance (change).

God is simply using the annoying, mixed up, hurting, mundane craziness of the world to perfect you in a way that only the Author of this wisdom would be capable of.

The only one who need not humble himself, did so, in order that we may learn to follow the still small voice that always seems to know better.

Because it's Him.

He is, and always will be, the beginning of wisdom.

(In short: We're all still a bunch of little kids.)



*See also: The Book of Proverbs. :)