Wisdom

“Jews demand miraculous signs and Greek look for wisdom…”
1 Co 1:22

I am a poet, but I don’t always understand my poetry. I have said a lot, yet I didn’t always know what I was trying to say. In fact, I oftentimes make a simple issue complicated intentionally and confuse my readers with unusual images and metaphors.

That’s not a wise thing to do at all. I raise my poetic tone so high that very few people can harmonize with me (曲高和寡.) Such isn’t the case with the Lord Jesus at all. He lowers himself to the lowest level until we can reach it and bring us up to where he desires us to be.

The Sophists in the city of Athens mocked the apostle Paul when he mentioned the resurrection of the dead. It was such foolishness to them that they didn’t bother to listen. Why was it foolish to the wise and the educated? Because most commoners during that time believed in some sort of resurrection and afterlife.

People with common sense are wiser than the sophists who seek wisdom far and wide.

“I sought for him in the crowd thousands of times, yet he was standing right there in the shade when I happened to turn my head,” wrote an ancient poet. Years may be wasted until we finally come to realize what we have been seeking all over the world has always been in our vicinity, within our grasp. “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart,” says the Scripture. If it is really so, our heart is the right place to where we should turn to find wisdom.

God speaks through our minds and hearts, and it’s crucial that we listen to both. Our minds often complicate and confuse, but our hearts simplify and clarify. On the lengthy journey of our search for wisdom, we may need to make a short cut by traveling from our heads to our hearts.

What did the Stoics and the Epicureans find in their arduous search for wisdom? Didn’t they find out the truth that most people have known by instinct? People can either endure or enjoy in this life and at the end they all die. Life is hard and we just have to learn to cope the best we can. Isn’t this common sense? But things are entirely different if we bring God into the equation. We don’t gain wisdom by way of speculation or meditation; we can only attain it by listening to God’s revelation. We can think so hard, but we can never escape from ourselves. How can we outthink ourselves? No matter how far and wide the Monkey King leaps, he is still within the palm of the Buddha's hand. We ourselves are the boundary by which we have been confined, and only through the leap of faith can we free ourselves from the confinement. The Greeks mocked Paul, and lost a precious opportunity to find the wisdom they had been seeking.