5 Principles to Living a Wise Life

I recently read an article by Mark Murray, “’Downhill’, ‘Divisive’: Americans sour on nation’s direction in new NBC News poll”.  The article chronicles the general pessimism and gloom across the country regarding the future of the United States. 

I understand that the article was trying to capture the current political mood of a nation.  However, the article did not reveal anything new to my understanding of the general attitude that I have observed for the last decade. 

If my observations are correct, there is a consensus that there is something deeply wrong within the society of the United States.  The cause of the problem is vigorously disputed but I see very few claiming that there is not a problem.  

I see a lot of fingers pointing to problems that are “out there”.  I hear the shouting of insults from one group at the perceived source of “the problem” and the vitriol response of “the problem” back at the origin of the original insults.  Around and around, we go with hope and optimism the victim of every cycle.  We have ridden this merry-go-round of mutual destruction to the point that we sit in our self-dug holes of pessimism and gloom. 

What are we to do?

This is not the world that I want to live in.  I want this destructive discourse to stop but the question is how.  I believe that the solution that plagues is not out there.  The true problem that inhibits us is within you and within me.  The true problem is that we all lack wisdom.  We lack wisdom and we are being played as suckers because of it.

I follow a simple definition of wisdom:

Wisdom is the application of knowledge and experience to address real problems. 

The solution to our problem lies in being intentional about who we listen to and who we are led by.  We are awash in content.  Most of that content lacks wisdom.  Therefore, we are being blown all about by non-sense. 

The following are four principles of wisdom that I apply in my attempt to stop being played.

Knowledge without Experience is not Wisdom

There are a lot of individuals with credentials telling us what we should do and how we should respond.  Yet, they have never had to implement any of their own ideas.  This is not wisdom.

I was given an article of the Harvard Business Review with a recommendation to read an article.  I immediately flipped to the end of the article, which is my practice, to read about the authors of the article.  The authors were university business management professors who, according to LinkedIn, have never held a job outside of academia.  Also, they had just released a book on the same topic of the article. 

I still read the article, but I read it with a degree of pessimism as to actual practicality of their ideas.  Clearly, they have not implemented their own ideas with the consequences due their own business.  As Nassim Taleb has stated in his book “Skin in the Game”, they have no skin in the game; they bear no risk of the implementation of their own ideas.  At least, they have no skin in my game.  Their game is to sell books and/or meet the academic objective of publishing an article. 

This article provided me knowledge, but not wisdom.

In the same publication, there was another article.  It was written by the President/CEO of a mid-sized organization.  He wrote about his management approach and his experience in implementing that approach with the associated results.  He had “skin in the game”.  He has experience running a complex organization and understands how to apply knowledge to his organization to solve actual problems.  That is wisdom. 

I saved that article because it was written from the point-of-view of wisdom.  I will allow this author to influence me.

We need to be discerning about who we allow to influence us.  The reality is that we all cannot be wise regarding every topic.  However, we can be wise regarding who we will allow to speak into our lives and provide us the basis upon which we make decisions.  Our decisions should be based in wisdom.  If it cannot be based on our own wisdom, then make sure the advice that you are acting upon is coming from wisdom.  Make sure that those you listen to have “skin in the game” and actually have experience in bearing the risk of applying their own advice.

Experience without Knowledge is not Wisdom

I am an engineer.  I have heard the slur on more than one occasion that “I am an educated idiot”.  The premise of this insult is that engineers have the knowledge of engineering but no understanding how things work in the practical world.  There is some truth to this insult.  Many engineers, particularly early in their careers, don’t have the experience to know how things actually work.  They lack wisdom.  They have knowledge but lack the experience.  The career goal of an engineer is to become “wise” in their profession.

The problem with the insult is a diminishment of the need for knowledge.  There is a fundamental difference between being aware of a cause-effect relationship and an understanding of how the cause results in the effect and how to predict or avoid such a relationship.  That takes knowledge; typically, a deep knowledge.

That is knowledge that cannot be learned from a few hours of research on the internet or through watching a couple of YouTube videos.  The knowledge associated with someone who has spent years studying a specific subject in depth should be respected.  There is value in that knowledge because it works in harmony with experience to produce wisdom.

We are often too quick to ascribe knowledge to someone who can recite fundamental facts and statistics, when we need experts.  We need individuals who have devoted themselves to a field of study that results in a deep understanding of their topic.  This doesn’t have to originate from the academic world and there are reasons to be skeptical that the academic world is still providing this knowledge.  True knowledge is still essential; however it is obtained.

I find it shocking how much of the content on the internet fails this test.  There are many people spuing out content that they have derived from their own limited internet searches.  They have no true knowledge.  They find a few articles, re-package them, and publish them as a list of essential recommendations that we either need to start or stop doing.  This is not wisdom.  Why would we allow it to influence us?

The same principle applies to knowledge as with experience.  The content that you are consuming should be based in true knowledge of the subject.  Do not let Google determine the “expert” that you allow to influence your opinion and decisions.  Research the knowledge base of those you listen to.  If they have no deep background in the subject that they are pandering, then don’t accept it as wisdom.

Solving Created Problems is not Wisdom

I don’t need to go looking for problems.  Enough problems have found me.  Yet, I am regularly accosted by solutions to problems that I did not know even existed.  I continually feel the anxiety of needing to have an opinion about a crisis that has no basis within my own life or to express outrage about things, which are beyond my control.  These are problems that are not relevant to my life or for which I have no power to effect.  

Therefore, the first step of wisdom is to determine whether the problem is real or as bad as it is portrayed.  There is a lot of truth in the statement of Rahm Emanuel:

You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.

Rahm Emanuel

The reality is that most of the discord in our society are solutions looking for a problem that can be exploited.  There are many pushing a political, social, financial, environmental agenda that need a problem to achieve their goals.  All one has to do is follow the news for any length of time.  An existential problem will arise that needs immediate action otherwise there will be dire consequences and then it just goes away into the wake of the next crisis.   It is not wise to expend your energy on those manufactured problems.

Wisdom is recognizing that all problems are not real.  The question of who benefits should always be asked.  If there are people getting rich by expounding a problem and/or its solution, then you should be hesitant about how much credence you give to them in your opinions and decisions.

There are other problems that are real, but you have no practical way of addressing them.  Wisdom is understanding that you cannot solve the world’s problems.  They can grieve you, but everyone has limits to the power they possess to change their world.  We need to apply our wisdom to the community that we live within.  The level of energy we expend solving problems should be greatest at the personal level and diminishing as you expand outward.  We all have personal, family, work, city and county problems.  Those problems need wise solutions.  You have the best perspective of understanding whether those problems are real. 

The reality is that if we spend time applying our knowledge and experience to solving the problems in our personal and family lives, we will be going a long way to resolving the real problems in our greater community and not those manufactured problems designed to capture our attention.

The Lack of Virtue nullifies Wisdom

As has already been stated, the purpose of wisdom is to solve real problems.  Inherent within this definition is a necessity that one can trust the application of knowledge and experience of the wise in forming the consensus to solve the real problem for the benefit of the whole community.

The reality is that there are “wise” individuals, who are willing to use their “wisdom” to manipulate others to get them to do what they want them to do.  They are willing to manipulate their knowledge, the information that they possess, so that they can achieve a pragmatic result. 

The result of this manipulation is that these individuals cannot be trusted.

The collapse of trust in our society’s institutions is well documented; just look at any poll.  These institutions have long been the sources of wisdom that we could rely upon.  However, consider the collapse of trust in the institutions of government, media, academia, religion, etc.  The fundamental cause of these institutional collapses has been that those within them have lacked virtue, specifically individuals within them have a pattern of lying, cheating, stealing, and pursuing their own interest at the expense of others.

We need to demand more from the “wise” in our society. 

We need to stop being influenced by persons with knowledge and experience when they demonstrate a lack of virtue.  We need to refuse to vote for them.  We need to refuse to buy their products.  We need to refuse to continue to support them.  We need to refuse to give them our most precious commodity, our attention.  We need to demand virtue in all those we allow to influence us.  Otherwise, we will continue to get corrupted “wisdom” and we will continue to be played as suckers.

It might be strange to place so much emphasis on virtue at a time when there are so many unresolved moral ambiguities.  Therefore, I will keep my premise of virtue as simple as the Silver Rule.  Nassim Taleb, in his book “Skin in the Game”, defined the Silver Rule as:

Do not treat others the way you would not like them to treat you.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, “Skin in the Game”

As Taleb points out, “we know with much more clarity what is bad than what is good”.  A virtue becomes the opposite of that bad act that you do not want done to you.   Gerhard Von Rad, in his book Wisdom of Israel”, noted that the ancients were much more pragmatic in the definition of what was good or bad (evil). 

Both good and evil create social conditions; in a completely ‘outward’ sense they can build up or destroy the community, property, happiness, reputation, welfare of children and much more besides.

Gerhard Von Rad, “Wisdom in Israel”

Therefore, the person who uses their wisdom to build up our community, property, happiness, reputation, and welfare for everyone is acting with virtue.  The person who uses their wisdom to destroy our community, property, happiness, reputation, welfare is acting without virtue. 

We need to stop allowing ourselves to be influenced by those who divide rather than unite; those who create the “us versus them” scenarios; those who gain an advantage at the expense of someone else.

Choose Your Team

We all make individual choices about what team we are on.  How about we reject all those teams and make a new team?  A team dedicated to wisdom guided by virtue.   To join this team, you must start by pointing your accusing fingers at yourself.  It is the only way that I can see to get off the merry-go-round of gloom and pessimism.  It will give us the best hope of being able to address real problems as a true community.  

That is a world I want to live in.

SEEDS

This year has not been the best. We lost our dear sister-in-law and our beloved Pastor. We have dealt with a fair amount of death these last two years. My thoughts landed on these fluttering seeds that were filling the air while I was sitting on the porch mourning those gone and those going. Life is so short. It is but a seed. Imagine what we will become when we leave this branch we call earth.

JD Blom

Seeds blown by wind 
Fill the sky 
Meant for a time 
Beyond the branch 

Pods all aligned
their only home
all they have known

A span of time
Short as a spring 
Long as a life 

From a blossom
All fresh and green
Dried by the sun

Time soon to leave
But hanging on
Safe by a stem

Suddenly came  
The dreaded day
Wind torn away

Tired and weakened
Carried away
Branch left behind

Into pure sky
To twirl and soar
Untethered life

Awakened world
Shocking freedom
All so anew

Moved without choice
Not stripped of hope
A will in wind

Carried to where
Seeds are planted
Grow and flourish

Stripped of seed form
Husk left behind
Ready for soil

New creation
A seed transformed
Eternal now

A brief season 
Just enough 
Meant for a time 
Beyond the branch 

Proverb-ish #2

These are my attempt a writing in the genre of proverbs from what I am learning by reading Wisdom In Israel by Gerhard Von Rad. Please see Proverb-ish #1 for all my caveats and excuses.

You will never have peace of mind
while someone else owns a piece of your mind.

Living publicly is living for the public.

Beware of anyone with the audacity to change a definition.

Ground

Do we really need to select an analogy for that on which we place our feet?
It is not a playground.
It is not a battleground.
It is simply ground.

The ground is never the same if you don’t stay in the same place. It can be luxurious like a grassy meadow with maybe even a rainbow. It can be steep and rocky like a mountain side with maybe even some conflict to make you slide. It can be hard and fast like a concrete highway, moving so fast it is hard to focus.

We were not built for a specific type of ground. We were built to move, to progress, to transition, to grow but never to hide. We do not do well when we dwell too long on one type of surface. We cannot sustain the battles of the rocky ground indefinitely. We cease to function if we refuse to leave an oasis’ respite once recovered.

We do not do well when we cling to a type of ground because we have ceased traveling. If we don’t move, we cannot claim to be living. Living is loving the destination, the experience of something new in which to sink our toes, the longing for what is over the next ridge, around the next corner, the knowing that we are not home.

We need not worry about the ground we are on. We are not here to build a residence. We are passing through time. Nothing of the ground will last. We need not worry about the ground we are on, whether urge to flee from an uncomfortable occurrence or linger in the comfort of security. Look up from the ground, this is not your home. Look all around, this is not your town. You are a nomad, flowing through time. You have a residence but it is not on this ground. Be curious about the future, hold fast to the hope that will last. Trust that the ground under your feet will transition into something new, but above all stay on the move and enjoy the journey of true living.

QUOTE – Tim Keller (12-5-21)

Wisdom is developed only in experience. No matter how hard they study, the graduate of medical school, law school, and business school will become truly wise in their fields only out in the open, that is, in real-life experince.

Tim Keller, God’s Wisdom for Navigating Life

This explains well the reason that I have a difficult time listening to the “wisdom” of someone in their twenties and maybe even their thirties. Wisdom comes from experience and experience is hard-earned and expensive.

Promiscuous Mind

This is the time of year that Spotify provides the summary of your listening habits for the year.  I have started to see these posts from friends and family Instagram.  Therefore, the timing was perfect to run across this quote by Epictetus.    

I look at the hours devoted to specific podcasts and muscians and I wonder if we haven’t just handed over our minds. I have not gotten my Spotify summary yet, so I am not judging or confessing. I am making a plan. I know what I will be looking for when my summary comes in.

Have I had a promiscuous mind?

I am not against intellectual inquire, but let’s be honest, that is not what Spotify is primarily about. It is mostly about entertaining, amusing, distracting, and simply filling the time. Consider who you have handed your mind over to? Consider who has become your primary influencer? Before we ever offer the parts of our body to sin, we offer up our minds.

Proverb-ish #1

I have been reading Wisdom In Israel by Gerhard Von Rad and have been inspired to see if I might be able to write something in the same genre. I have learned a couple things.

First, it is a little embarassing to blatantly admit that you’re trying to write something wise. In other writing, you can hide behind the interesting phrase or poetic license. There is no hiding your intentions when putting a pen to a proverb. Your intellect tends to be on display. I have found that disconcerting. My intellect is not the worst, but it is not the best. I land comfortably in the middle of the bell curve. Yet, I am still susceptible to the praise of men and the fear of being considered simple or even stupid. However, I have learned that intellect and wisdom are not the same. Wisdom is the application of knowledge to the real world. Therefore, my attempt is to share what I have learned through the years (knowledge) to my understanding of how the world works. I am more confident with this.

Second, this is hard. The whole point is to write a thought-provoking saying that conveys a world of truth in a few words. That is difficult to do. Good or bad, the process is rewarding. Attempting to write a proverb will force you to write in a concise manner. That is a good excercise for anyone working on the craft of writing. So, I will keep at it. Hopefully, they will improve with time.

I have delayed long enough. My disclaimers are hopefully sufficient. There are a variety of proverb styles. Here are my first attempts at proverb writing, presented as opposites:

Opinion rough hewn, set aside as complete.
Thinking continually crafting, refined through time.

Quick retorts, snide remarks, talking points, pass for understanding.
Accurate articulation of an opposing view, true knowledge.

Division and hurt excused by single-minded purpose.
A wake of kindness, people as primary, purposed defined.

Curiousity satisfied by a tweet.
Always more to know, curiousity grows.

PICK YOUR PAIN

“You have to learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable.” 

This is a saying in endurance sports. It seems that endurance sport is the rare place where suffering is exalted and even sought.  We praise those athletes that dig deep, feel the burn, and deny themselves to achieve their goal.

Sadly, the endurance sports’ lesson of suffering’s value fails to make it into everyday life.  Mostly, we want our everyday lives to be free from suffering. In fact, we not only want it free from suffering, but we also want it free from discomfort, frustrations, and general annoyance.

Not all pain is the same, but our reaction to pain, intense or minor, is the same.  Our inclination is to flee pain, avoid it, minimize it, remove it.  However, if everything that does not go our way is suffering in a degree, then it is pain on some scale.

Life is pain because life is a struggle with suffering. We struggle with all those disappointments that are not as we want; big and small; painful and annoying; consuming and distracting.

Perfection is the absence of suffering. 

Those who pursue perfection to escape suffering are the ones who suffer the most.  Humans are imperfect.  Society is imperfect.  Nature is imperfect.  If you demand perfection, you will suffer the more than anyone else.

There is only one who is perfect.

Therefore, life is a management of suffering in all its degrees while we await the perfection to come.

We don’t want to suffer the consequences of an immoral life. 
Therefore, we suffer the lesser pain of self-denial.

We don’t want to suffer want and need.
Therefore, we suffer the discomfort of self-discipline.

We don’t want to be crushed by the inevitabilities of life.
Therefore, we serve others and humble ourselves.

We don’t want to suffer eternal punishment for a sinful life.
Therefore, we lose our lives so that we might gain them.

Now, there is a paradox here for those who are in Christ. We are commanded to follow in obedience, to deny ourselves, to pick up our crosses and follow Christ. We are also told that it is God who is at work in us to will and to act in order to fulfill His purposes. This is the paradox that we all live. How does all that work? I am not entirely sure. However, I do know that within this paradox I have enough incentive and encouragement to endure. I have learned that when I embrace the denial of self, the power to preserve always comes through the Spirit, usually a while after I think I need Him, but in His time.

Suffering reveals our weaknesses.  It reveals what we value most.  Suffering is training.  It reveals perfection if we dare to look.  That is the knowledge that every “liver” of life needs to navigate through all the pain.

Suffering cannot be escaped, but we do have a choice in what we learn. 

Pick your pain or your pain will pick you; learn its lessons or pain will be absent of purpose.  So, dig deep, feel the burn, endure the race because perfection will have its day.

QUOTE (Tim Keller) – Troublemakers

I have been listening to Tim Keller’s sermon series on wisdom. He referred to his devotional book during his sermon Knowing God. So, I bought God’s Wisdom for Navigating Life. Yesterday’s devotion struck me as so relevant to today’s issues that I wanted to share it. It is hard to make a case that our culture is getting wiser.

THE TROUBLEMAKER. Another kind of fool is the troublemaker. The mark of this person is constant conflict (Prov. 6:14). This is the opposite of the peacemaker (Matt. 5:9), the bridge builder whose careful, gracious answers (Prov. 15:1) disarm and defuse tensions. The troublemaker instead stirs them up. This is not the person who disturbs the false peace with an insistence on honesty. Rather, this is someone who always feels the need to protest and complain rather than overlooking a slight or wrong (Prov. 19:11). When troublemakers do contend, they do not present the other side fairly. Their corrupt mouths produce deceptive omissions, half-truths, and innuendo. Their body language (winking, signaling) creates a hostile situation rather than one that leads to resolution.

Troublemakers tell themselves and others that they just like to “speak truth to power”. But disaster will overtake the troublemakers (Prov. 6:15). As time goes on, it becomes clear that the troublemakers themselves are a reason that conflict always follows in their wake. They can be permanently discredited by events that expose them for what they are. But the ultimate reason for their downfall is that “the Lord hates…a person who stirs up conflict in the community” (Prov. 6:16, 19).

Tim Keller, God’s Wisdom for Navigating Life, Page 11

Lost Meaning – Isaiah 1

What is this noise in my sanctuary?
This prattle sung in rythmic repetition.
Why these whispers during solemn prayer?
Hushed gossip of trivialities.
Where is My Word in this Sunday TedTalk?
Bells muting divine meaning and knowledge.

Stop bringing all this meaningless worship!

Light-shows manipulate emotions impure.

Your media productions are detestable to me.

Your striving for personal gain, purpose, and self-improvement, I cannot bear.

“Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”

Isaiah 1:18

Where has the meaning in your worship gone?
Come now, return the meaning to your praise and worship.
Let you worship flow from true reality, from sins that have been washed clean.
Let your Sunday morn be a time of meaning in all sincerity;
Worship with meaning is pleasing to Me.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a prophet. I am not claiming to have a word from God. I am always hesitant in writing narrative for God or implying that what I have written is in fact from the mouth of God. The above is my application of the Word of God through an actual prophet, Isaiah. This follows along with the thoughts of DID ANYONE NOTICE.