The sage of old declared: of all
the things a person can pursue in life WISDOM is
of greatest value. We are taught that: Wisdom is the principle thing, in
all your getting get wisdom; in her
right hand is to be found long life and her left riches and honour; her paths
are peace and her profit greater than silver, greater even than fine gold. She
is more precious than jewels; nothing can be compared to her. Therefore, pursue
wisdom. These words have stirred my soul for years and after decades I pursuit I
can finally say few are the joys more sublime than the pursuit of this
Handmaiden of the Soul – a divine romance to be treasured throughout all eternity.
I was first turned onto wisdom by
the story of King Solomon. After inheriting the throne from his father, King
David, he was overwhelmed by the prospects of rulership and so he prayed and after
he prayed he dreamed. He didn’t pray for fame or riches but for the wherewithal
to rule wisely and his prayer was pleasing to the Lord; and as the maxim goes,
‘pursue the substance and the shadow will be included,’ so it was for good King
Solomon, in pursuing the substance that is wisdom the shadow of fame and riches
followed.
Fame and riches are only prized
by material minded men and women – the children of this world; but the wise understand that wealth cannot atone for
foolishness or selfishness. It cannot buy peace, love, hope, forgiveness,
loyalty, friendship, nobility, grace, maturity, trust, character, or salvation.
What must it cost us before we learn that an ounce of sense is of greater value
than a ton of gold - even several tons? and lest this be not obvious to you
remember: a fool and his money are easily parted.
The values and priorities of the
post-modern world are mixed up, even toxically so. Alas, our culture is all we
have to pass onto our children and they find out, too late, that it is
spiritually bankrupt. We teach our children that the ends justify the means and
encourage them into the blind pursuit of wealth, power, influence, and fame. The
spiritual and moral bankruptcy of our ambitions is ravishing the earth even
today, let alone what future generations will have to suffer due to our poverty
of true values.
The forward march of civilisation
is into the unending quest for higher and ever truer values but the very mixed
up nature of the values that guide us at present has us going in endlessly
repeating circles of social, environmental, political, and economic chaos and
calamity. True it is that many will not enter the Kin-dom except through great
tribulation!
Wisdom
understands that a person may be happy by accident but they can never stay
happy by accident. Your portion of happiness, peace, contentment, joy is almost
directly proportional to your quotient of spiritual wisdom and directly upon
how effectively you can harmonise your life with the fundamental laws,
intelligence, and purposes that shapes and governs reality.
When
a nation fails to affirm and overtly promote the pursuit of wisdom as the first
goal and primary duty of every citizen it is, by default, covertly and
implicitly dedicated to promoting the pursuit of folly, thereby do nations,
peoples, and individuals court social, cultural, economic and political
disaster.
When
are we going to grow up and place the pursuit of wisdom as the number one priority
of mortal life?
