I need wisdom.

I think that saying "I need wisdom" is another way of saying, "I need help". I need help. This life is a lot. A lot. Lea recently said, "We're all just trying to navigate through each day". Yep. Each day is a lot. Each day is a beautiful, complex gift. Why is that? Because each heart that is navigating each day is a beautiful, complex heart. I'm looking at a picture of my pastor Ed Hague who is with Jesus now. He once preached a sermon on "Sabbath" one Sunday and when he finished, he was aware that he couldn't move on the next week to a different topic. He preached on Sabbath the next Sunday too. And then for the next 5 or 6 Sundays I think. While he was teaching about Sabbath one of those Sundays he said, "Life is meant to overwhelm us." Bummer. Not when the overwhelming cultivates dependence on Jesus. Jesus knows that this day and this heart are beautifully complex and He invites us to need Him in the midst of it. That's where I think wisdom comes in. We need help.

In the Bible book of James, chapter 3, verses 13 through 18, wisdom is being taught. We get two lists. I like lists. They kind of help to give a succinct view of something. So what are the two lists in James 3? What does wisdom look like.... hellish wisdom and heavenly wisdom. So what are the marks of hellish wisdom. Hellish wisdom is characterized by bitter envy, selfish ambition, denial of truth, it's earthly, of the devil, clings to disorder and every evil practice. As I read that list last week, I was prompted to pull up a common news site on the internet. I read through all the prompts and story headers from that days news. It was overwhelming! (Remember, life is meant to overwhelm us...) Outside of one or two stories about a grandma being a hero or some such, every story that was listed as "news" dripped with the characteristics of fellow humans living life from the grid of hellish wisdom. Disorder, denial of truth...of the devil. Really thick. Really overwhelming.

So what about list two? Please help me! I love what it says in James 3. The wisdom that comes from heaven is.....I love that. Thank you Holy Spirit that you carried James along to write to us and teach us about what heavenly wisdom is like in contrast to hellish wisdom. The wisdom from heaven is pure. It is peace loving. It is gentle. It is submissive. It is good fruit. It is impartial. And it is truthful and sincere. So drastically different than the first list. Such a gift for this beautiful, complex heart living this beautiful, complex day.

So how does that this actually happen? I don't need this to just be some pithy subject that I can write about to get my post in for the day. I need help remember? How do we receive this heavenly wisdom and not swim in the cesspool of hellish wisdom today? We get heavenly wisdom by getting Jesus. The Bible book of Proverbs, chapter 9 and verse 10 says this, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Ok stop there a second. Fear of the Lord. That kind of sounds spooky. No. Fear of the Lord is us having a humble respect and deep gratitude that God would stoop to offer us forgiveness and life when we actually deserve death because of our sin. He holds our life in His hands kindly and chooses to offer us life, not death. And we say thank you God. Thank you. My life is not in my hands, though I struggle a lot to live that way. My life is in your hands. It's all you. It's all gift. Thank you. That's the tone of the "fear of the Lord". Now push further in verse 10. "And knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." Ahhhh. We get wisdom and understanding by knowing the Holy One, Jesus. And what is it that we're knowing about Him that gives us heavenly wisdom? It's that Jesus IS those things. He is pure and making us pure (Philippians 2:15). He is peace loving (John 14:27). He is gentle (Matthew 11:28-30). He is submissive (Matthew 26:39). He is full of mercy (Ephesians 2:4-5). He is good (Psalm 34:8). He is impartial (Romans 2:11). He is the truth (John 14:6).

Jesus is wisdom. We get Jesus, we get wisdom! So we are all trying to navigate through this beautiful, complex day with our beautiful, complex hearts and it can be overwhelming. That's one of the thousands of intersections where we humbly say,

"Jesus, I need help. I need wisdom. I need You."

I need You.

There's more.