Pro 8:1 Doesn’t wisdom cry out? Doesn’t understanding raise her voice? Pro 8:2 On the top of high places by the way, Where the paths meet, she stands. Pro 8:3 Beside the gates, at the entry of the city, At the entry doors, she cries aloud:
Pro 8:10 Receive my instruction rather than silver; Knowledge rather than choice gold. Pro 8:11 For wisdom is better than rubies. All the things that may be desired can’t be compared to it. Pro 8:17 I love those who love me. Those who seek me diligently will find me.
Jer 29:13 You shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart.
How do we find meaning in a world that often seems so meaningless?
Meaning comes from learning how we “fit” in this world gone mad.
Wisdom helps us see through the madness to the heart of life and living.
How do we find wisdom? According to Proverbs, the Book of Wisdom, it comes from seeking diligently, earnestly, persistently, urgently. In other words it comes from seeking with our eyes open (all the time). It comes from seeing. (see my blog entry “seeing”) Eyes wide open, we must diligently seek wisdom.
But where do we find wisdom?
Does all wisdom come from the pulpit?
Does all wisdom come from the Holy Book?
Or does it come from any and every expression (or creation) of God?
Sure, wisdom comes from the obvious places, like the pulpit and the Holy Book. But is that the only source of wisdom? Is that the only place we should diligently seek wisdom?
Does wisdom only come from the high places? Or might it also come from the low places? Does wisdom come from only from the greatest and best? Or might it come from the “least of these”?
Might it come from life itself?
If we seek diligently, it occurs to me that we should leave no rock unturned.
Wisdom / Truth can be found in the most hidden and obscure places. Places we would normally walk by if are scurying about life; eyes unopened to the wisdom sitting behind the newspaper on the bench right next to us. It can be found in the night sky . . . the smell of a rose . . . the bird with broken wing . . . literally and figuratively.
Some of the deepest lessons in life, I’ve learned from the most unexpected places.
Wisdom for life comes from life; if we live it with our eyes wide open.
Could wisdom come from the youth with a disability so severe that he cannot speak?
Could wisdom come from the homeless man on the corner?
Could wisdom come from a child?
Could wisdom come from an infant gasping for its first breath?
Could wisdom come from an elder taking her last breath?
Could some of the greatest and deepest wisdom come from the greatest and deepest pain?
Could wisdom come from the death of a friend?
Could wisdom come from imprisonment?
Is it possible that wisdom could come from divorce?
Is it possible that wisdom could come from a wheel chair?
I GUESS THE QUESTION REALLY IS:
“CAN I LEARN FROM THEM”?
IF SO, “WHAT CAN I LEARN FROM THEM”?
What is MY learning ability?
What is MY learning disability?
Are we living with our eyes wide open?
Do we slow down enough to see?
Do we stop long enough to think?
Are we quiet enough to hear?
Are we living in the “now”?
Because “now” and right “here” is where wisdom is. We learn wisdom from life.
Wisdom cries out from the mountains and the valleys, from the gutter and the streets, from the paths we trod, from the “gateways of the city” (Prov. 8:3).
“The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls… and in the sounds of silence” (Lyrics: Sounds of Silence)
Look everywhere
Listen to all
Learn from all
Don’t miss it!
Male female slave or free
Peaceful or disorderly
Maybe you and he will not agree
But you need him to show you new ways to see (Lyrics: Bruce Cockburn, Maybe the Poet)
Poetry as Wisdom and Truth
Poetry is what you find
in the dirt in the corner,
overhear on the bus, God
in the details, the only way
to get from here to there.
Poetry (and now my voice is rising)
is not all love, love, love,
and I’m sorry the dog died.
Poetry (here I hear myself loudest) is the human voice,
and are we not of interest to each other?
Elizabeth Alexander
Living with Open Hands 
Ron Irvine
October 23, 2010
What I’ve found in the past year is something I knew all along but something that I was largely unaware of. If I am created in the image of God, if Spirit lives within, and if I do have an inner light, an inner teacher, then why don’t I listen to the still, small voice within. This is where my search for truth must always begin. I must listen.
“Prayer is listening.” (Kierkegaard)
“People who pray stand receptive before the world. They no longer grab but caress, they no longer bite but kiss, they no longer examine but admire” (Henri Nouwen, Encounters with Merton)
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