Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Proverbs for Starters- Part III

Back to this phenomenal book; reading through it for the second time now as I write. As I wrote in the second of my musings on the book about 'The Fear of the Lord,' the foundational concept for the life Proverbs as a book points us to, I mentioned the word wisdom. It is this I will write about now.

I suppose if anyone thinks about the book of Proverbs they will immediately think of Wisdom as its theme, and that is certainly true. Yet, when you actually study the book and start looking through its pages, one can actually be alarmed at the profile God gives to Wisdom. What I mean is this: In our age we tend to place huge emphasis on passion, or charismatic worship, or leadership as the core elements of following God, things we can glamorize I guess. But God puts His emphasis (certainly in this book) in another place all together. It is Wisdom we must pursue, it is Wisdom that we should long for with all that we are. We should sell all we have in order to grasp a hold of this Godly Wisdom. If you think I am overstating this emphasis, just read this book.

If you just read one chapter of the book of Proverbs, chapter eight, you would not be the first to feel that God is actually talking about the person of Christ as the words on wisdom flow from the verses of this chapter. To God Wisdom is essential. In fact the first thing that 'The Fear of the Lord' as a concept should lead to is this 'Wisdom.' The book is relentless in its efforts to point us towards being 'the wise' and not 'the foolish.'

I think it is as I begin this crazy journey as a leader of a church entrusted with the lives of those He has given to my (our) care that I start to feel a seemingly parallel hunger/need/desperation/want for this Wisdom in my life that God Himself wants for me (and obviously, all of us). When all the leadership strategies and mantras fall to the wayside, when the lights are off after Sunday's big gathering, what there is is just a lot of broken, needy people who are aching for insight and leadership towards living life in the midst of everyday chaos. Wisdom becomes all important at this stage. And of course, I want to live a life that my people would seek to imitate- this life is the life led with Wisdom.

Simon

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