Sunday, August 9, 2020

Wisdom and Understanding

 

Job 28: 12 But where can wisdom be found?

Where does understanding dwell?

13 No mortal comprehends its worth;

it cannot be found in the land of the living.

 

Look around us today: is wisdom and understanding found in the living?  Laughable.  If wisdom and understanding won’t be found in the living, then we must look to the dead (custom and tradition) or to God for these.

But society does not want to look to the dead or to God for these; in fact, society is choosing to ignore or even destroy both the dead and God. 

These mortals do not comprehend the worth of this wisdom and understanding.

I look at the world and see no understanding

I'm waiting to find some sense of strength

 

I need to live life

Like some people never will

So find me kindness

Find me beauty

Find me truth

 

Here before me is my soul

I'm learning to live

I won't give up 'til I've no more to give

No more to give

 

-          Learning to Live, Dream Theater

5 comments:

  1. Society is too distracted by their phones and other screens to seek out wisdom

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  2. To be honest, foolishness has probably been the norm in every time and place. But I don't think there was ever a time and place in which the sensible and competent were so violently and deliberately suppressed as the here and now... and what's worse, they don't seem willing to fight back to preserve themselves.

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    Replies
    1. "...what's worse, they don't seem willing to fight back to preserve themselves."

      This may be true. It may simply be appearances.

      One thing about sensible and competent people is that they know when to engage in the battle and when to keep their heads down. It may be that there are many out there who have decided that what is arrayed against them is too much to take on directly and are instead taking defensive, evasive action, preparing themselves in such a way that when this craziness is over, they will be left largely intact. This would seem to be the sensible move to make and I'm willing to bet that there are multitudes of them.

      Elijah made the mistake of assuming that he was the only one in all of Israel who was doing the Lord's work and had to be reminded that God's soldiers were everywhere, even though they couldn't be seen. (1 Kings 19: 13-18)

      On the other hand, I am reminded of the movie, "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", in which Robert Redford and Paul Newman showed themselves willing to fight back, but charged headlong into a hail of gunfire from the Mexican Army. End of story. End of movie. They were certainly competent, but not very sensible.

      We have to know which battles to fight and which ones to run away from. There are those which you do not back down from regardless and there are those which it is better to 'live to fight another day'.

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    2. It would be suicidal and counterproductive at this stage to literally shoot back, certainly... but it's still possible to show contempt for all the insanity, yet there are precious few doing it. Maybe I just need to accept that the number will always be tiny next to the majority.

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    3. One correction to make. Cassidy and the Kid were killed by soldiers in the Bolivian army, not the Mexican one. Simple mistake on my part.

      Un apologia a los soldados Bolivianos. Lo siento mucho!

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