Thoughts Negligible

I've been doing some reading in wisdom literature lately while simultaneously reading renown literary critic Harold Bloom's Where Shall Wisdom Be Found? I realize that my life over the last few years has been a search for the answer to this very question, and will continue till...forever. Wisdom is out there, for I've read and known those who have found it. Or maybe they just pretend?

Many criticize Bloom, and he certainly merits criticism at times, but he's brought this question--Where shall wisdom be found?--to the front of my mind, whereas before it was an unstated motivation. I seek wisdom to live fully alive, submit to God, and to live humbly in service to others. The way the Old Testament talks about wisdom is in a manner of pressing urgency:

Lady Wisdom goes out in the street and shouts … :
"Simpletons! How long will
you wallow in ignorance?
Cynics! How long will you feed your cynicism?
Idiots! How long will you refuse to learn?
About face! I can revise your
life.
Look, I'm ready to pour out my spirit on you;
I'm ready to tell
you all I know.
As it is, I've called, but you've turned a deaf ear;
I've reached out to you, but you've ignored me.

"Since you laugh at
my counsel
and make a joke of my advice,
How can I take you seriously?
I'll turn the tables and joke about your troubles!
What if the
roof falls in,
and your whole life goes to pieces? [like Job?]
What if catastrophe strikes and there's nothing
to show for your life but rubble and
ashes?
You'll need me then. You'll call for me, but don't expect
an answer.
No matter how hard you look, you won't find me.

"Because you hated Knowledge
and had nothing to do with the Fear-of-God,
Because you wouldn't take my advice
and brushed aside all my offers to train you,
Well, you've made your bed--now lie in it;
you wanted your own way--now, how do you like it?
Don't you see what happens, you simpletons, you idiots?
Carelessness kills; complacency is murder.
First pay attention to me,
and then relax.
Now you can take it easy--you're in good hands.

(Prov 1:20-33 The Message)

And this:

Good friend, take to heart what I'm telling you;
collect my counsels and
guard them with your life.
Tune your ears to the world of Wisdom;
set your heart on a life of Understanding.
That's right--if you make Insight
your priority,
and won't take no for an answer, . . .
Believe me, before you know it Fear-of-God will be yours;
you'll have come upon the Knowledge
of God

(Prov 2:1-5 The Message).

You'll notice in both of these passages that "wisdom" and "Fear-of-God" are synonymous. The wooing from Lady Wisdom strikingly resembles God's impassioned pleas to Israel to return to him in passages throughout the OT.

So, there! We have our answer, concisely and powerfully: Wisdom is the fear of God. You can stop reading now if this has quenched your desire for wisdom. But this answer opens up more questions for me. What is fear of God? Is it like hiding from a grizzly bear in the forest? Is it wistful submission to any injustice? Is it demeaning our suffering by saying "Well, God's God, and he can do whatever he wants or allow what he will; after all, it's our fault for turning against him and sinning"? I find this kind of God one not worth serving. All too often this is the comfort I hear--or most likely have given--to the problem of others pain. But why do we have to hide this kind of God from those being evangelized, only to slap them in the face with his apathy when they've made a commitment:

Taking a cue from dating is helpful on this point. If we desire people to be happily married to Jesus as his loving bride, it makes sense to let them go out on a few dates with him instead of just putting a shotgun to their heads and asking them to hurry up, put on a white dress, and try to look happy for the
photos. --Mark Driscoll

The first book we will look at, I believe, offers some good, perhaps not too comforting, answers to these questions. I'm finding, however, that those things which initially offend me in wisdom literature, and in the gospel in general, turn out to be my biggest comfort. Must we peel back the fabric of the cosmos so there is no more mystery? Are answers really always comforting? Are answers always wisdom? Take a moment and ponder that last question. It seems we often cheapen wisdom, God's wisdom, with explanations. I'm not sure the two are always the same, and I think the two proffer differing levels of comfort when actual troubles strike. The beauty of Job is that we are left with ambiguity, gaping in awe in the presence of a boundless God and a universe which may be in fact ambivalent to our existence. Job insists that answers aren't wisdom, nor are they comforting when we are confronted with tragedy, doubt, and injustice. Job insists that we live with a sense of mystery, that our lives are something less faithful when we demand the death of mystery; in the end, the death of mystery is our arrogant denial of God.

Where shall wisdom be found? Since we know the answer to the question, let's find out how we got there. Let's take the wisdom-journey, a path so few take, a road narrow, but the only one worth traveling.

If you can, spend some time looking over Job 1-15, and 38-end. I would also suggest you meditate on the Lady Wisdom passage above, unpack the call to Wisdom, the wisdom of Wisdom.