June 15

Two Wisdoms

             Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom.  But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth.  Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind.  But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.

James 3:13-18

    

            People, in general, are not evil and they are not stupid.  They are selfish and envious, fully engaged in the earthly wisdom that James describes here.  They feel an ache in their soul and are convinced that the way to ease that pain is through getting More…more power, more praise, more money, more love, more stuff, more highs.  More can help us forget the pain for a little while; it can dull the gnawing ache as we become distracted and exhausted and consumed by acquiring and maintaining More.  But then there are the quiet times where the ache comes roaring back and we realize that More is just not enough.

            If getting More is not the answer, earthly wisdom argues, then it is because others are in our way to relief and they need to have Less.  So we push and we pull and we tear down so that their Less can become our More.  This is the way our world works.  You are either a winner or a loser.  You either have More or Less.  You are either us or them and it is entirely based on two core principles:

·         Find relief from the pain of being human

·         There are limited resources

If you have More then that means I have Less and I will be stuck in suffering while you find joy and so I will fight for those resources for the good of myself and my family.  This is earthly wisdom.

            James describes a second type of Wisdom:  Wisdom from above.  At the core of Heavenly Wisdom is the idea that Man was made to be with God.  When we are together we are at peace; when we are separated we are incomplete and our heart hurts.  Nothing will heal that pain outside of being with God.  Nothing.  More does not heal the heart, it only provides temporary distraction from the pain while leading us towards death.  Wisdom from above allows us to be generous with our time and our money and our energy because we know we are not competing with the rest of the world for these resources.  God provides them for us.  Wisdom from above allows us to live and work in peace because our neighbor is another aching child of God, not our competition for More.

            It is shockingly easy to believe that More will fix our kids.  If we just had more therapies, the right schooling, more aides, more money, more time, more social skills, more job skills, more medications…if we just had More, they would be ok.  Then we get angry because there are roadblocks in our way to getting More and we fight and we claw because there are limited slots available and only so much program money to go around and we will not be one of the losers who are left out when this could be the key to my child’s health and success.

            In general, More does not fix the lives of our children.  It has the potential to actually make their lives worse since the pursuit of More usually means that they get less time with us.  We can be so busy working and making money and researching and planning that we forget to actually spend time with our kids and enjoy them and allow them to enjoy us.  We forget that the best place for our kids to learn relationships and confidence and character is by spending time with us.  We bury ourselves in work in the hopes that being busy and creating a better life for our children will be enough to drive the nagging pain away.

            The ache in our hearts will not disappear even if we are able to make a good life for our kids.  That ache was there long before we had children.  That ache will not go away if we become highly successful professionals or if we are able to retire early.  That ache is there because we were created to be with our God.  Until we are able to reconnect with Him, all of the striving…all of the fighting to get More…will do nothing to heal that ache.

A moment to reflect:

How do you strive for More?