Who
is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds
done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and
selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such
“wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the
devil For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and
every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all
pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit,
impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of
righteousness.(James 3:17-18)
Know also that wisdom is sweet to your
soul; if you find it, there is a future hope for you, and your hope will not be
cut off.
(Proverbs 24:14)
You
don't have to watch the news to know that our nation and our world are in
turmoil. Violence and the call to violence seems to be everywhere and many
applaud the violence because they hate the people who are supposedly targeted
by that violence. At the same time, every new murder brings about calls for
some solution. Yes, by all means destroy
those wicked, privileged people (by whatever definition you use for those
adjectives) but when the victim turns out to be someone unintended, someone who
is considered innocent because he's not part of those wicked, privileged
people, then the cries go up for justice. Justice for "us," but not
for "them." Justice that excludes those we envy and those who get in
the way of our success. This is what I see when I look at the world.
Then,
there are the memes and posts on Facebook. You've seen them. There's a picture
of some sad person or some sad animal. A tale of tragedy follows, ending with a
challenge that IF YOU CARE, prove it by sharing, or by copying, pasting and
posting. A million people doing this is somehow going to make a difference.
Yes, it makes such a big difference. You've had the opportunity to declare
loudly that you CARE and that is all that's needed. You feel good because
you've done something to help that poor person or pet, and everyone knows it.
There
are also those posts that show the whole world what a terrible person someone
is because he/she has "shamed" another person for the way that other
dressed, or something that other did, or for any reason. Shaming is bad!
Bullying is bad! Of course, the solution is to make sure that everyone in the
world knows how shamefully that terrible
bully behaved, so that everyone can bully that person into behaving as he/she
should.
This
is the wisdom of the world: to approve or use violence to achieve one's goals
while screaming that violence is a bad thing, to prove how much you care by
publically announcing that care even though the person for whom you care gets
nothing out of it, and to shame and bully those judged to be shaming and
bullying. It's the sort of wisdom that screams that EVERYONE MUST BE INCLUDED,
then adds the caveat, "except those who disagree. They're garbage. They shouldn't be allowed to breed because
they exclude those who disagree with them." Peace is achieved through the
compromise of "their" standards, not "ours."
Then
there is a different kind of wisdom. There is a wisdom that has been proven
over the centuries to build strong, stable societies. It is a wisdom that has
worked for millennia to end slavery over and over and continues to fight it
today. It is a wisdom that sought to end the abuse of the poor, the weak and
the defenseless. It is a wisdom that cares for those who oppress it, even at
the risk of their own lives. It is a wisdom that built shelters for the
diseased, and cared for them. It is a wisdom that taught that all should be
educated, and built systems that could provide that education. It is a wisdom
that sought to discover how the universe works because it understood that the
universe followed laws that could be understood. It is a wisdom that fought to
free people from addiction. It is a wisdom that founded and promoted what we
now call "charity." It's even a wisdom that promoted the beauty in
art that is now rejected.
The
problem with the first sort of wisdom is that it provides no hope. It is built
on a philosophy of separation, of classes, conflict and feelings. The second
sort of wisdom gives hope because it is based on connections and on principles
that have been proven over and over.
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