Crosswise

Does not wisdom cry out,
And understanding lift up her voice?
She takes her stand on the top of the high hill,
Beside the way, where the paths meet. – Proverbs 8:1-2

If wisdom is hidden surely it is hidden in plain sight. Of course, one problem is that the wisdom of God is not what most of us seek. We want the esoteric wisdom of how to play the Market, or, maybe, how to count blackjack cards. (Speaking of gambling, wisdom will sometimes suggest that the best solution is to draw straws. We’d have a better Congress.) I suppose we suffer from the particularly human ailment that says anything free and readily available must not be worth much.

Though wisdom is available to everyone and comes without price in gold, silver, or monopoly money, it is not obtained without sacrifice. The very words which wisdom speaks, if we hear them, begin to demand of us a laying aside of certain attitudes and views that we may cherish. Wisdom challenges us – threatens us, even.

It has occurred to me that I define myself at least as much negatively as positively. Who I am can be who I am not. Thinking in terms of who I am not is handy, but it also seems a little dangerous. God made no negative statement when He identified Himself to Moses as I AM THAT I AM. That is pretty inclusive. If the LORD had been a hillbilly, He might have said, “I AM all there is, and there ain’t no more.” Having absolutely no knowledge of Hebrew, I can’t vouch for the accuracy of that translation, but it’s a thought.

The very first thing wisdom challenges us to do is check ourselves out in a positive sense, to begin to examine not so much how we live but why we live the way we do, and, most importantly, if we want to continue living that way. Wisdom stops us on the road and asks us if we are confused, bitter, empty, miserable, or all of the above. Some of us are, and we’ve never stopped to consider it. We assume that is the state everyone is in, more or less, unless they are drunk, high, have a new car, or are sleeping with a soap opera princess/prince. As crazy as it sounds, we always think our most common state of mind is the more or less median mental state of all humans. If we are not careful, we find ourselves resisting a move in either direction away from our accepted norm. That’s fine if the push is to move lower into more confusion, more anger, more misery. It doesn’t, however, make much sense if we’re moving higher to more joy, more peace, and more light.

Wisdom stands on a high hill and cries out that we might hear her, but she also stands always and every moment at the cross road that we might choose another way.