James 1:5 – Supersized Wisdom
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. James 1:5, New King James Version
As much as we depend on and delight in gadgets in our house, we rarely update them until doing so has become a borderline need. In such concessions, I've discovered the principle of AND. Years ago, I wanted, and maybe needed, a new tablet because the old one would not take a charge. In meeting the need, in fulfilling the essential functions the old one would not, this bookish gentleman whose love language is audiobooks discovered that the new one would read e-books to him. I got the gift of AND from God who gives more than enough.
AND doesn't always open magnificent vistas. Sometimes God just grants an AND beyond what we ask for by making the same things He has already enabled us to do easier and less irritating. He even speaks gadget here, and has done so recently.
My e-book dealer, I mean vendor, through whom I have an unlimited subscription uses a format that will not ordinarily allow the e-books to be read to me. There is a web browser add-on for that, and He guided me to it. But it stopped spinning its tale every few minutes awaiting a refreshing of the browser before continuing. This broke the spell of whatever I was listening to, and the rhythm of whatever work in which I was engaged.
The principle of AND with respect to God's generosity and big and small things was at work again while I was addressing something I thought was more important. A new computer got close enough to a need to justify a Black Friday purchase. Not only does it fulfill the functions I would have listed, but, somewhere between the capabilities of the new computer and downloading a new version of the same browser, my beloved electronic voice continues to fill my head with volumes of information until I'm the one asking "her" to stop.
It's somehow appropriate that God uses such means and generosity to guide me toward what wisdom books can offer. He is in the AND, the unexpected add-on, business in that very area. In fact, He has been for very long time in ways I never noticed. Famously, He tells us in James 1:5 that He will give us wisdom if we ask. I'll take it, and take it, and take it, very often to compensate for the messes I've made when I haven't taken it before.
What He offers is more than facts and knowledge. It's wisdom, the ability to apply the knowledge differently and more appropriately. I knew that and was grateful for it, but there's more. He lets us see His heart and His facial expression while doing it. I jumped instantly to what's not there. Have you? He gives without reproach. Praise be to Him, because humans don't tend to.
One of the benefits of going to Google, back to the glory of God through gadgetry, is that we can ask Google questions we would be embarrassed to ask otherwise, questions we might be embarrassed to ask again because we have access to the same information before. Eventually, ask humans the same question enough times, and there is a side of reproach that comes with it.
So there is already an AND to God's wisdom in that He reinvents it. He protects HIS idea of wisdom from our experiences with it colored by the reproach we tend to receive when we admit we don't know how a situation will or should play out. But, in James's ultimate infomercial, there is still more. James says God gives liberally. I never claimed that aspect of His gift. I never clung to that part of His character.
In fact, I'm so used to going to people, or books, or Google with a specific question in mind and coming away with just that answer that I need to know what wisdom liberally given actually looks like. I need to see a narrative example with skin on. Predictably, in the vastness of His Word, He obliges many times.
One gusher of His liberal wisdom occurred in the life of Solomon. Burned and aware of the importance of the leadership opportunities he had been given, Solomon asked for one definition of wisdom. He asked well.
How does God respond? God responds LIBERALLY. He answers Solomon's specific request AND more than Solomon could ask, think, or imagine. He supervises Solomon's wisdom according to 2 Chronicles 1:11 and 12.
“Because this was in your heart, and you have not asked riches or wealth or honor or the life of your enemies, nor have you asked long life—but have asked wisdom and knowledge for yourself, that you may judge My people over whom I have made you king— 12 wisdom and knowledge are granted to you; and I will give you riches and wealth and honor, such as none of the kings have had who were before you, nor shall any after you have the like.”
According to the memoir in Ecclesiastes, these blessings didn't just appear the next morning. What Solomon thought prospered. What Solomon did prospered. He got these things because God blessed him with multidimensional wisdom. He got these things because, centuries before James, God was already showing off an eagerness to give wisdom liberally.
He is still about that business. Even as our boundaries on what to asking God about have no place in right theology, he very often overrides our limited queries anyway. We ask for one thing, and He helps us understand so much besides.
CS Lewis helps put skin on this principle in one of his letters as a very young tutor at Oxford. He constantly corresponds that the work is time-consuming without really getting into complaining or despair. He has to stay ahead of multiple pupils, reading what they read and being prepared to help them and hold them accountable with his questions. He will admit that this cost him time that might be devoted to his own reading and writing, but he also shows us an aspect of AND.
By reading what his pupils read, going beyond the scope of his own Oxford studies or his own current preferences, he says he begins to see connections in the world he did not understand before. He likens it to someone walking along a path known from years before but this time with more experience, broader perception, more wisdom. Like the person going along the path with a different perspective, Lewis rejoices that he now sees the connection between this subject and that, this assignment and that. He is becoming, he says, a better thinker and writer because of it.
This is our AND. God's grace is to answer more than we ask, to help us with a particular conundrum and thereby to connect us to His understanding of related areas. As we understand the liberality of His expression in otherwise intimidating or irritating details, we begin to understand more. We begin to serve more, and to serve more joyfully. Experience begins to teach us that the next page we turn might solve the dilemma from yesterday which still vexes us. It might, by His grace, show us more of Himself.
As much as we depend on and delight in gadgets in our house, we rarely update them until doing so has become a borderline need. In such concessions, I've discovered the principle of AND. Years ago, I wanted, and maybe needed, a new tablet because the old one would not take a charge. In meeting the need, in fulfilling the essential functions the old one would not, this bookish gentleman whose love language is audiobooks discovered that the new one would read e-books to him. I got the gift of AND from God who gives more than enough.
AND doesn't always open magnificent vistas. Sometimes God just grants an AND beyond what we ask for by making the same things He has already enabled us to do easier and less irritating. He even speaks gadget here, and has done so recently.
My e-book dealer, I mean vendor, through whom I have an unlimited subscription uses a format that will not ordinarily allow the e-books to be read to me. There is a web browser add-on for that, and He guided me to it. But it stopped spinning its tale every few minutes awaiting a refreshing of the browser before continuing. This broke the spell of whatever I was listening to, and the rhythm of whatever work in which I was engaged.
The principle of AND with respect to God's generosity and big and small things was at work again while I was addressing something I thought was more important. A new computer got close enough to a need to justify a Black Friday purchase. Not only does it fulfill the functions I would have listed, but, somewhere between the capabilities of the new computer and downloading a new version of the same browser, my beloved electronic voice continues to fill my head with volumes of information until I'm the one asking "her" to stop.
It's somehow appropriate that God uses such means and generosity to guide me toward what wisdom books can offer. He is in the AND, the unexpected add-on, business in that very area. In fact, He has been for very long time in ways I never noticed. Famously, He tells us in James 1:5 that He will give us wisdom if we ask. I'll take it, and take it, and take it, very often to compensate for the messes I've made when I haven't taken it before.
What He offers is more than facts and knowledge. It's wisdom, the ability to apply the knowledge differently and more appropriately. I knew that and was grateful for it, but there's more. He lets us see His heart and His facial expression while doing it. I jumped instantly to what's not there. Have you? He gives without reproach. Praise be to Him, because humans don't tend to.
One of the benefits of going to Google, back to the glory of God through gadgetry, is that we can ask Google questions we would be embarrassed to ask otherwise, questions we might be embarrassed to ask again because we have access to the same information before. Eventually, ask humans the same question enough times, and there is a side of reproach that comes with it.
So there is already an AND to God's wisdom in that He reinvents it. He protects HIS idea of wisdom from our experiences with it colored by the reproach we tend to receive when we admit we don't know how a situation will or should play out. But, in James's ultimate infomercial, there is still more. James says God gives liberally. I never claimed that aspect of His gift. I never clung to that part of His character.
In fact, I'm so used to going to people, or books, or Google with a specific question in mind and coming away with just that answer that I need to know what wisdom liberally given actually looks like. I need to see a narrative example with skin on. Predictably, in the vastness of His Word, He obliges many times.
One gusher of His liberal wisdom occurred in the life of Solomon. Burned and aware of the importance of the leadership opportunities he had been given, Solomon asked for one definition of wisdom. He asked well.
How does God respond? God responds LIBERALLY. He answers Solomon's specific request AND more than Solomon could ask, think, or imagine. He supervises Solomon's wisdom according to 2 Chronicles 1:11 and 12.
“Because this was in your heart, and you have not asked riches or wealth or honor or the life of your enemies, nor have you asked long life—but have asked wisdom and knowledge for yourself, that you may judge My people over whom I have made you king— 12 wisdom and knowledge are granted to you; and I will give you riches and wealth and honor, such as none of the kings have had who were before you, nor shall any after you have the like.”
According to the memoir in Ecclesiastes, these blessings didn't just appear the next morning. What Solomon thought prospered. What Solomon did prospered. He got these things because God blessed him with multidimensional wisdom. He got these things because, centuries before James, God was already showing off an eagerness to give wisdom liberally.
He is still about that business. Even as our boundaries on what to asking God about have no place in right theology, he very often overrides our limited queries anyway. We ask for one thing, and He helps us understand so much besides.
CS Lewis helps put skin on this principle in one of his letters as a very young tutor at Oxford. He constantly corresponds that the work is time-consuming without really getting into complaining or despair. He has to stay ahead of multiple pupils, reading what they read and being prepared to help them and hold them accountable with his questions. He will admit that this cost him time that might be devoted to his own reading and writing, but he also shows us an aspect of AND.
By reading what his pupils read, going beyond the scope of his own Oxford studies or his own current preferences, he says he begins to see connections in the world he did not understand before. He likens it to someone walking along a path known from years before but this time with more experience, broader perception, more wisdom. Like the person going along the path with a different perspective, Lewis rejoices that he now sees the connection between this subject and that, this assignment and that. He is becoming, he says, a better thinker and writer because of it.
This is our AND. God's grace is to answer more than we ask, to help us with a particular conundrum and thereby to connect us to His understanding of related areas. As we understand the liberality of His expression in otherwise intimidating or irritating details, we begin to understand more. We begin to serve more, and to serve more joyfully. Experience begins to teach us that the next page we turn might solve the dilemma from yesterday which still vexes us. It might, by His grace, show us more of Himself.
Comments
Post a Comment