Wisdom

The pursuit of wisdom is one of the most sought after but also least enjoyable endeavors because it usually takes hardship to root wisdom deep into our soul.

Tom Atlee shares the following ideas to help bring wisdom into our current situation:

• We are wise when we extend our vision to perceive the largest possible perspective of a situation.

• We are wise when we extend our vision into the future to the consequences of our present actions.

• We are wise when we extend our vision beyond our personal view—and beyond the dominant view of our group or culture—to hear and understand the views of others.

• We are wise when we extend our vision beyond convenient labels and judgments to view things more as they are.

• We are wise when we extend our vision beyond isolated facts and linear logic into the whole fabric of life, using all the forms of knowing that are given to us.

• We are wise when we extend our vision beyond certainty to the underlying, all-encompassing, ever-unfolding mystery of life.

Oren Lyons of the Turtle Clan of the Onandaga Iroquois shares a process for discovering wisdom: "We just keep talking until there's nothing left but the obvious truth."

How are you doing with acquiring wisdom in your life? Are you searching in the right places and asking the best questions?

James 3:13,17-18
If you are wise and understand God's ways, live a life of steady goodness so that only good deeds will pour forth. And if you don't brag about the good you do, then you will be truly wise! The wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no partiality and is always sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of goodness.