The Lifelong Pursuit of Godly Wisdom
The Proverbs tell us "Blessed is the one who finds wisdom and the one who gets understanding" (Proverbs 3:13). The beginning of wisdom is fearing the Lord, the path of wisdom is worshiping the Lord, and the end of wisdom is falling down in the presence of the Lord before His face in glory. In all of life we are called to fear the Lord as we seek the Lord to gain pure wisdom from above (James 3:17). By His grace our Lord has given us His Word, and He's also given us students of His Word, followers of His Word, preachers of His Word, servants of His Word, and exegetes of His Word, but He has given us no masters of His Word except our only Master, the Holy Spirit, under whose convicting and comforting presence we sit daily as pupils in the school of our Lord Jesus Christ who prays for us to the end that we might possess all wisdom for our good and for God's glory.
In His wisdom our covenant Lord has granted wisdom to those who have sought it--to those who have gone before us and to many of those who stand alongside us. What is more, He has given us hearts for the lifelong pursuit of wisdom not as an end in itself but that we might rightly know His truth, apply His truth, and proclaim His truth so that all might love Him with all their hearts and love their neighbors as themselves and thus glorify God and enjoy Him forever. We therefore must pursue wisdom wherever it can be found--going to the ends of the earth if necessary. And just when we think we've found wisdom we will have hopefully gained enough wisdom to know how much wisdom we still need in applying the knowledge that fills our minds.
As we all have, I have met many men in my life from whom I have learned much. Though not always in agreement with all of them and, it seems, sometimes never in agreement with some of them, I have nevertheless learned lessons from all of them, and it's only by my right stewardship of God's sustaining grace that I will be found faithful in what they have passed on to me. And unless we have fallen prey to the Enemy's devious schemes in allowing ourselves to become cynical and apathetic about the pursuit of wisdom, we are striving after wisdom daily and praying daily to the Lord for wisdom, humility, and love.
To the end that we pursue wisdom and find wisdom in our lives, I have decided to conduct a series of interviews with men from whom the people of God can grow in wisdom. It's my intention to interview those who may be known to many and those may be known to only a few. Wherever I have traveled around the world the Lord has always provided me the unspeakable privilege of meeting amazing people with amazing stories and amazing wisdom, and I want to pass on to others what I learn from them. I hope to conduct interviews with those I come across whose stories need to be told and from whom we can gain wisdom for all of life. It's my desire to interview ordinary faithful pastors, ordinary faithful parishioners, urban pastors, suburban pastors, country pastors, seminary professors, seminary students, older men, younger men, older women, younger women, seasoned teachers, front-line missionaries to unreached peoples around the world, front-line missionaries to the unreached across the street, church planters, church revitalizers, authors of books, those about whom books could be written, those who have no time to write books, those who print books, those who edit books whose names are unknown, military chaplains, military veterans, children of pastors, children of pastors who are now pastors themselves, and followers of Jesus Christ whose lives have intersected with mine and whom I think we can all learn from. These interviews will not be conducted on any set schedule and will conclude when they have run their course or when I have run mine. Of course I will not always concur with the expressed sentiments or doctrinal convictions of those I interview, and I will neither offer comments nor provide a venue for others' comments in reaction to the interviews. I hope readers will find them helpful, and it will be my ongoing prayer that our Lord will use these interviews in some way for the edification of His people.
Throughout these interviews let us always remember that wisdom is having the humility to recognize we don't have all the answers in life, the discernment to know whom to ask, the initiative to ask and keep on asking, the courage to ask hard questions, the patience to listen to hard answers, and the discernment to reflect on everything while applying only that which is appropriate so that in all things we might be filled with the fruit of righteousness by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God" (Philippians 1:11). Stay tuned later today for the first interview.