As you continue to age, you may want to seek God's wisdom. But how do you seek God's wisdom in a secular world?
The Bible is the Word of God. Through the Bible, God speaks to each and every one of us. But God's wisdom is often beyond the understanding of man. Jesus often uses parables to explain Biblical truths because it is not readily available to the human mind; God's wisdom is always profound and unfathomable to many.
The Bible is the Word of God. Through the Bible, God speaks to each and every one of us. But God's wisdom is often beyond the understanding of man. Jesus often uses parables to explain Biblical truths because it is not readily available to the human mind; God's wisdom is always profound and unfathomable to many.
To pursue God's wisdom in the Bible, understanding human wisdom
is the "first" step.
It is true that if we diligently and fervently pursue God's
wisdom, such as reading the Bible, God will use the Holy Spirit to open our
hearts and our minds. However, we may require human wisdom to overcome our
disbelief first before there is further understanding.
To seek God's wisdom, first and foremost, we need to know who we
really are. Unfortunately, many of us do not really know who we are, let alone what we
want in our lives.
Why is that? It is because human thinking is imperfect.
According to the famous statement "I think, and therefore I am"
of Descartes,
the great French philosopher, we think and therefore we become what we think we
are, that is, the product of our thoughts. However, that statement is only
partially true: due to flawed human thinking, we may not be the sum of our
thoughts, because our thoughts are only partially true. Therefore, we are not really
who and what we think we are.
"True" human wisdom is an endeavor to understand who
we are and what we need. Understanding the self helps us understand the true
nature of things, or the laws of nature. Without understanding the natural laws
of this world, human sufferings and ordeals in life often become stumbling
blocks to understanding spiritual wisdom. Indeed, many of us find ourselves
often asking the questions: Why me? Where is God?
Lao Tzu's immortal classic Tao Te Ching explains
the essentials of human wisdom, which involve "reverse" thinking from
the "conditioned" mindset of conventional wisdom. He explains how to
acquire "true" human wisdom, without which it there is little or no
intent to seek God's wisdom, let alone understanding the wisdom of God
expressed in the Bible.
Understanding human wisdom begins with the mind -- an empty and inquisitive mind with
the intent to ask questions to find out who we are and what we want. Asking
questions enhance awareness,
which is an important ingredient of human wisdom. With acute awareness, we
develop clarity of
mind. Heroes in movies often know the right thing to do because they have
clarity of mind. In life, no amount of training can compensate for clarity of
mind, which enables you to separate the truths from the half-truths or myths
Stephen Lau
Copyright© 2018 by Stephen Lau
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