Wisdom and understanding

"My son, do not let wisdom and understanding out of your sight,
preserve sound judgement and discretion" - Proverbs 3:21
 I was thinking about the issue of wisdom and understanding for the longest time since God knows when. Recently, during the conference, Thio Li Ann said something which made me go 'whoa'. She talked about how people commented that things that she talked about are very 'chim'. She rebutted that it should not deter people away from understanding, cos if these are from God, we should ask God for wisdom to understand these 'chim' stuff. I perfectly like what she says.

I think it is not a matter of deliberately being 'chim' and trying to look sophisticated in our theology and philosophy. As I quoted in my previous post, the narrative of the bible appeals to wide range of audience, and is so simple that kids can grasp the truth and so profound that theologians can grapple with these biblical issues for centuries. I like what Ravi Zacharias said in one of his podcasts that truths in the bible sometimes cannot be packed in simplistic terms (not simple but simplistic). Some of the things that Jesus has said in the bible require us to exercise certain mental gymnastics. 

That's why I fully agree with Thio Li Ann on the point of asking God for wisdom and understanding. I think a lot of times, we know that we can ask God for wisdom and understanding, but often (not wrong though) for our daily living and decision making. Indeed, wisdom and understanding helps to preserve sound judgement and discretion, and help us not to go astray. But we forgot to ask Him to give us wisdom to understand His ways and to understand His words, to understand what His servants have said about His ways and His words. So, sometimes we avoid the 'chim' stuff and go for the simplistic ones. So, sometimes we choose not to go deep and are contented to remain shallow.

At this point, before I end this post, just another comment about seeking knowledge and wisdom. We are all very busy people, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't set aside time to seek knowledge and wisdom. It is better than shopping and gaming. I could never understand how people make excuses that they have no time to read books to further their knowledge of God. Page One has a quote that says that we can't finish reading all the books in our lifetimes but just read anyway. If you ask me, there are so many pockets of time we can have to gain knowledge. In my travelling, I will either read a book or listen to podcasts (useful ones) and think about the issues mentioned. During pockets of time, I will access into news website to keep myself updated on the latest happenings (not that I am able to grasp all of them at one go). I figure that if we stop watching serial dramas, youtube, cut down on shopping and gaming, we can actually achieve a lot in knowledge. This comes with commitment and discipline.

And so, that's why I will continue to write as I would, to impart as I should. I would not shy away from deep philosophical stuff insofar they are useful for understanding.

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