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Wisdom

             If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. (James 1:5)

Wisdom, Direction, Attitude. Those have been my automatic prayer requests for years. I suspect wisdom is on many people’s lists. Technically, if I had wisdom, there would be no question of my direction or my attitude. It’s all about wisdom.

The first problem is that God doesn’t answer my prayer. I don’t open a book (even the Bible!) and put my finger on some wisdom. No light shines. No note descends from Heaven on a fishhook. I don’t have flashes of insight with which to impress someone. Life just goes on, disappointed because God doesn’t answer my prayers.

And as life goes on, I find that I’ve learned a thing or two. I respond differently and it works. I realize that, while God can certainly teach us in a flash of insight, He tends to teach over time. The gift of wisdom isn’t generally magical. While our awareness may come suddenly, wisdom is not built in seconds. It accumulates over decades.

Another problem with the way I tend to seek wisdom is a lack of specificity or need. I want wisdom, period. Is there a specific question, need, or situation? No, I just want wisdom. If I faced a decision with options and asked for wisdom, God could and probably would have an answer to give me, but the only real answer to “Give me wisdom” without a specific issue is “OK, here’s life. Live it.”  It’s still an answer. It’s a great answer. Just not the answer I wanted.

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