How far would you go to gain

knowledge and wisdom?

Directional Road signs three wisdom intelligenve and knowledge

Really.  How far?  For some of us, we expend great amounts of money to obtain college degrees.  More than the money, we give up the earning potential of those four to five years in hopes of a greater return on the other side of our specialized training.

But that’s just knowledge.  What about wisdom?

After all, the old adage is true: knowledge is knowing there’s a snake in the grass.  Wisdom is staying out of the grass—or maybe going in the grass with closed-toe shoes and a hoe!

Knowing what to do with your knowledge is critical.  How far would you go to obtain wisdom?   Proverbs 8:10-11 teaches…

Choose my instruction instead of silver,
knowledge rather than choice gold,
for wisdom is more precious than rubies,
and nothing you desire can compare with her.

Most of my readers are Christians so I address that part of my readership now: knowing a lot of stuff about the Bible is important but knowing how to use that knowledge is the difference between bringing death to someone and breathing life into them.

But maybe more than that, how you read and study the Bible yourself needs to be focused on all three components given in these two little verses.

When you read:

  1. Ask, “What is this about”?  Every passage of the Bible is in there for some reason.  Find that reason.
  2. Ask, “What does this passage say about God?”  Every passage of the Bible is about God’s story and how it intersects humanity’s.  Find God’s part too.
  3. Ask, “What do I do with this?”  This is the part we tend to miss.  And when we do, we begin to get colder in our Bible study.

As pastor and author Andy Stanley reminds us: the Bible isn’t about knowing stuff; it’s about doing stuff (Deep & Wide, 114).  We have to focus on what “stuff” we’re supposed to do because of the instruction we have been given and knowledge we have gained.

After all, you can know how poisonous a snake is.  You can know that cutting its head off will kill it.  You can know how to swing a hoe to kill it.  That’s all knowledge and instruction.  The decision to wade into the grass and kill the snake or avoid the grass…that’s wisdom.

So how far will YOU go to gain wisdom?