Choose Wisdom

Anonymous Common sense or book-smarts. Experiential or mantic. Wisdom is about knowledge and using that knowledge correctly. Whether in Biblical stories or everyday life it seems however that people normally only have one type of wisdom. Enoch received mantic and Ben Sira got experiential. As the Bible stories always seem to allow the character to only use one form of wisdom. In modern life people's intelligence is categorized into two: they either have common sense, or book-smarts. Though the many biblical texts tell us of pursuing wisdom, chasing after and choose her, when it comes to the types of wisdom do we choose those as well? Clearly the author's of Enoch and Ben Sira chose the type of wisdom which they thought best for their arguments. Lady Wisdom seems to be of both mantic (due to godly emanation) and experiential (from seeing all things from beginning of time), therefore when she gives wisdom to her seekers, what do they receive? Whatever the answer to this is, I think more interestingly would be to ask the classic "Would you rather". If the choice is up to you would you choose mantic or experiential? Or for today's context if you could be wise would you choose book-smarts or street smarts? For myself not only will I choose wisdom but I would choose street smarts. Streets smarts have the appeal that they actually help you survive in the real world, for me the difference being given a survival book or being given the skills to survive. I on the one hand want to actually survive, not just read about it. Therefore street smarts, I choose you.

Choose Wisdom

Anonymous

Experiential wisdom, the kind of wisdom that comes with living life, tells us to avoid the obvious dangers in life. Wisdom tells us not to leave a candle burning when we leave the house, not to put our fingers in electrical outlets, and not to blindly sail into storms such as the one in the picture shown on the left. Wisdom has many practical uses in everyday life.

When traveling, it is always a good idea to be aware of your surroundings and to use good judgment when assessing a situation. In other words, choosing to use common sense and searching for wisdom about the place you are visiting are always good ideas.

Rather than remain ignorant about the place and culture you are visiting, seek wisdom about the local customs and traditions. Once you begin seeking wisdom about a place, you may find that you want to keep seeking wisdom and gaining knowledge about the places you visit.

Choose Wisdom

Anonymous
When I was growing up, wisdom always came from my parents. In my eyes, they knew everything. I think of this as a form of mantic wisdom. For example, once my parents told me not to run on ice, or I would fall. But being a kid, I ran, and I fell really hard.

At this point in my life, growing up means focusing a little less on mantic wisdom, and a little more on experiential wisdom: the things I learn by experiencing the world. It's one thing to be on your own at home, having grown up in that culture. Being on your own in a different country is, in my opinion, a totally new level of responsibility. Granted, I'm not on my own; there are wonderful people on this trip I knew, have gotten to know, and whom I now call my friends. Basically, I have learned something new from every single experience I've had here. That's what wisdom is all about.

At the end of Proverbs 8, Wisdom says "All who hate me love death." Wisdom is about learning to live life out to the fullest every day. It's about learning to listen to those who will guide us while making mistakes to gain our own. If we aren't taking advantage of every opportunity handed to us, enjoying every moment we can, are we really even living?

On a lighter note, was it a wise choice to go swimming in the Mediterranean with it being as cold as it was this evening? Probably not, but I'm warm now, and I had fun!