Becoming Old Wise People

One of the realities of human life, that is a result of the Fall in Genesis 3, is aging.  In many ways, aging is a harsh reality because able-bodied young people decrease in physical capability just as a result of the passage of life and of time.  On the other hand, age should bring with it wisdom and dignity as well as insight into the Word of God.  The pertinent word is should, the process of aging should breed wisdom, but it is the process of such a decree that warrants further examination.

The issue at hand is the fact that wisdom is not accrued passively.  In fact, it requires our intentional and active pursuit.  More so, though, acquiring wisdom demands that God, particularly that we ask God to bless us with wisdom in faith (James 1:5-6).  Essentially, aging into an old, wise person does not simply mean growing into an old person.  Instead, it necessitates a life spent seeking God and asking Him to bless us with wisdom.

This is an all-too-often neglected reality.  We all know people who are old but are unwise.  However, they feel that their age is the only requirement of being wise.  This is just blatantly incorrect because, as aforementioned, wisdom and growing in wisdom does not happen passively but requires our active and consistent participation and pursuit.

Truly, aging in godliness requires more than merely the passage of time; rather, aging in a godly sense  demands our consistent and continued faithfulness.  Remember, wisdom at its heart is the ability to make right decisions.  And as rightness is a characteristic of God Almighty, wisdom is thus the ability to rely upon God for decision making.  Let us then pursue the wisdom of relying upon God so as to grow into the old, wise people that God intends us to be!

The Pacific Gospel Mission

Since 1877, the Pacific Gospel Mission has cared and preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the men and women of Chicago.  The mission was founded and funded by George and Sarah Clark from the very beginning and would quickly become a mission of massive size.  As a result of the increase, the Clarks, who had been bearing the cost of the mission, were unable to fund it any longer.

Despite their best efforts to fundraise, the financial burden came to a head to such a degree that if the Clarks did not garner the money, the mission would have to close its doors.  The Clarks spent the whole night on their knees in the house praying that God would provide the money to save the mission.

In the morning, when the couple emerged from its Morgan Park home, they looked with awe at their yard.  Filling the yard were hundreds of the highest quality mushrooms.  This was made even more remarkable because not only had there never been mushrooms in their yard before but it wasn't even season for them.  The couple spent all morning picking the mushrooms, then brought and sold them to the chefs at the Palmer House, the famed hotel.  The Pacific Gospel Mission was able to keep its doors open, all because of the providential hand of God Almighty.

The essence and point of this story is fairly self-evident.  God is a God who provides for those who earnestly seek after Him.  This is one of the keys to the Christian life.  No matter our circumstance, if we are seeking to live in the center of God's will and we are worshiping Him in faith and humility, He does and will bless us for our faithfulness.  Let us then continually and persistently come to God with our requests, big and small, so that we may be blessed by the Lord!

Judas Sheep

Sheep are cautiously stupid creatures.  They spend most of their life running away from possible dangers and following others.  In fact, because of their constant skittishness it can be a difficult task to herd them at all, particularly at the slaughterhouse.  However, clever butchers have devised an ingeniously deceptive way to lead the sheep to the deaths without forcing them.

Butchers at the slaughterhouse use a trained goat, dubbed the Judas goat, leads the others to the ramp and gets the herd in motion.  At the apex moment, the Judas goat turns to a gate that closes after it enters, while the herd is forced to continue on to their deaths.

It is interesting that throughout Scripture, believers are referred to as sheep.  This is not an accident.  Believers, by nature, are capable of both jumpy skittishness and thoughtless following.  Unfortunately, these very traits, though purposeful when coupled with wisdom and critical belief, can be the very things that lead some astray.

Consider the many people who would sneak into the flock and, like the Judas sheep, intend on leading the drove to destruction and death.  Every New Testament author warns against such falsity, indicating that wolves dressed as sheep will be present and will try to lead believers astray.  The important thing, for every believer, is to keep their eyes open and critical so that we will not be led astray by counterfeit sheep.

For Judas sheep are everywhere, hoping to trick as many unsuspecting sheep as they can and lead them to their ultimate deaths.  Let us then be aware and active in our vision so as to be protected from such deceit!

Dancing in the Rainstorms of Life

Robert had never even been out of the country when he took his new position in Tokyo, Japan.  He was a product of southwestern America, where rain is scare and the sun is hot and clear.  Because of the obvious cultural distance and because he didn't want to be alone, Robert found a local man about the same age, Akiko Saitou, to be his roommate.

All was going well until the first earthquake and rain.  Japan is, essentially, a volcanic island that has never fully stabilized.  And, to a foreigner, this can be quite disconcerting, particularly when most of the locals view earthquakes and storms with a certain sense of apathetic reverence.  However, when the first real tsunami-like rains hit, Robert was dumbfounded.

In fact, Robert spent that first rainy season learning how to duck under canopies with ninja-like speed.  He thought that he was starting to fit in except that Akiko would always point and laugh at the ridiculousness exhibited by his wimpy, American roommate.  This sort of display happened every time the rains came with their tempestuous force, so that by the end of the season Robert had determined to find out why the Japanese were so calm during such torrential downpours.

Finally, on one such rainfall, after Akiko's usual chortles at Robert's unusual fear of rain storms, Robert went to Akiko and asked him, "Why is everyone here so calm when the sky is falling?  How can you be so cavalier when the rain is pounding like this?"  Akiko smiled at his roommate and, with a laugh, said in his decent but broken English, "My friend, you can spend all your life trying to dodge  and hide from the rain.  Or, you can simply learn to dance in it like the rest of us!"

Storms of this life are continuously stirring and pouring over our shoulders, filling our eyes with water and our hands with puddles.  A storm is anything in life that can break us down and damage us with its constant pommeling.  The trick is, as shared by Akiko above, to stop wasting so much energy fearing the rain and come to the place when you can dance in it.

The essence of this is sincere devotion and faith in God.  If we, when under stressful duress, will simply trust that God is who He is.  Needless to say, this is a daily if not momentarily exercise in faithfulness.  This will equip us with the lenses of God and His holiness that can make the most difficult of life's decisions seem as whim and frivolity compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ.  Let us then take this mind among us to depend on God so as to dance in the rainstorms of life!

Relying on the Lord in times of Fear

Jonathan and Susan had been married for over a decade when Jonathan was offered a promotion from his company.  The Job was considerably more salary and benefits, and was simply too-good to refuse.  Unfortunately, the new position required Jonathan to be traveling three or four days a week.  Although they were apprehensive, after some prayer and counsel, it became clear that God had prepared this career move for the family and Jonathan accepted the position.

For the next several months, Susan had began to grow accustomed to Jonathan being away, though she still missed him greatly when he was on the road.  She would feed the children and put them to bed, always remembering to say prayers.  She had never felt unsafe or unprotected when Jonathan was away, because Susan knew that God was watching over the family.

One night, when Jonathan was away, Susan woke up in a dreadful fear.  She glanced at the clock, which read: 2:00.  She couldn't understand why, but she was simply rigid with fear.  Susan, though an adult, pulled the covers over her head and said a brief but earnest prayer for relief and for protection from her prayers.  She prayed that God would not allow any evil to injure her or her family.  She breathed a couple deep breaths and drifted back to sleep.

When she woke up in the morning, she went downstairs to brew herself a cup of coffee.  She peered out her window and across her lawn to see a police squad car parked in the street in front of her house.  She closed her robe and walked outside to see the neighbor girl who babysat the family's children running towards her.  The teenage girl was so excited that she could barely speak but Susan could pick out that a burglar had robbed three houses on the block last night but that they had caught him.

Susan walked over to the police officer and, after exchanging pleasantries, Susan asked the officer for some clarification of the previous night's foray.  The officer shared that indeed three of her neighbors had been robbed last night and that her house had almost been robbed too but not to fear because they had caught the burglar.  Susan was startled by that and asked for more information.  

The police man said that the burglar had made it to her house after he had robbed the other houses and was about to break her in through the side window when, suddenly, the burglar suffered a minor cardiac arrest and passed out on the ground outside of her house.  She was astonished and asked the officer when that happened. The officer looked at her and said, "Oh, about 2 o'clock."

God had saved Susan's family.  Her prayer had been efficacious and God protected her and her family.  This is incredibly scriptural.  The writer of Hebrews, quoting Psalm 118, writes: "So we can confidentially say, 'the Lord is my helper; I shall not fear; what can man do to me?'"  If, when faced with fear and gripping trepidations, we would turn to God for our support, we will always find that God is there.  Although the above example may seem a bit far-fetched, it is a true story.  God is our fortress and our shield, our ever-present help in times of trouble and need (Psa. 46:1).  Let us then turn to Him when we feel uneasy with fear and find comfort in the shadow of His might!

A Story of Hidden Agendas that Aren't so Hidden

Daniel Pink tells a story in his book What Color is Your Parachute of his wife, Carol, a career counselor.  Carol had a client named George.  George had worked in the rubber industry for years and came to Carol for some help.  George explained on the first session that he wanted to get out of the rubber business.  In response, Carol gave George some homework and sent him on his way till their next session.


At the next session, George showed up with not one lick of his homework completed.  Carol looked at George, and point-blank asked him, "George, noticing that you haven't done this work, I have to ask: what will happen if you don't get out of the rubber industry?"  George answered back, "My wife will divorce me."  Carol, not missing a beat, asked, "George, do you want your wife to divorce you?"  
George just smirked.  He then shared with Carol that what he really wanted was a divorce, and that he would never change his job until he got that done first.  George's real agenda had nothing to do with a job, but everything to do with a divorce.  Because of that, he would never change.


People won't change unless they want to.  No amount of external prompting or orthodox teaching can affect someone to change if they do not desire to change.  For instance, there is a young man I know who swears till he's blue in the face that he would give anything to quit smoking.  But every time someone else lights a cigarette around him, he lights one up too.  He still buys pack of cigarettes, but always tells people that he's quitting; like this is his "last" pack, or that he only smokes when he drinks.  He claims to want to change, but his actual agenda is to feed his addiction.


There are many verses that speak to the need to put God first in our lives.  In fact, it could be said that the whole of Scripture is focused on this very thing.  Our sanctification is at stake.  We will never be able to transform by the renewal of our minds and the regeneration of our hearts if we do not want to. Because of this, we should check ourselves for any underlying sinful agendas that would distract us or inhibit our growth.  Let us then strip ourselves of agendas that hinder so as to come closer to God by His will!

Overcoming Temptations with the Word

There was nothing odd about this particular evening in the Davidson household.  Dad had worked a hard day at his job while Mommy had been home with their three children all day, doing the various things that three kids, ages 10 months to 5 years, demand.  It was dinner time and the couples' eldest, Jenna, was being naughty, throwing food across the table and hitting her little brother.  Finally, Mommy had had enough and sent Jenna to her room for the rest of the night, minus dessert.

A few hours later, well-after the dishes were done and the other children had been put to bed, Mommy went to tuck little Jenna in and kiss her goodnight.  Mommy walked into her five-year-old's room to see her daughter sobbing on her bed, looking sad and defeated.  Jenna looked up at Mommy and, with swollen eyes, asked: "Why do we do bad things, Mommy?"

Mommy, in as comforting tone as she could, answered, "Honey, the devil sometimes tells us to do the wrong things.  We need to listen to God to do the right things." To which a sobbing Jenna replied in tears, "But He just doesn't talk loud enough!"

Could we not all empathize with Jenna?  Often we know that what we are doing is wrong but the voice of the tempter, Satan, can seem so much louder than the voice of truth.  Temptations are something that is common to every human.  In fact, even our Lord and Savior, Jesus, faced severe temptations (Heb. 2:18, 4:15), as chronicled in Matt. 4:1-11, and Luke 4:1-13.

Jesus, following His baptism, is led by the Spirit into the wilderness.  After forty days of fasting and prayer, He is hungry but spiritually ready.  At this moment, Satan comes to Jesus and tempts Him thrice.  In each of Satan's ploys, he supports his temptations with Scripture, giving them the appearance of truth.  However, Jesus is not detoured, He overcomes everyone of Satan's temptations with Scripture that is applied expertly.  Two things stand out in this account that are instantly applicable to us.

The first is the need for recognition of interpretive heresy.  Satan supported his temptations with hermeneutical finesse that made each of his temptations seem not only acceptable but even condoned by the Word of God.  Notice, then, that Satan's voice sounds like truth though it is actually spurious lies.  Understanding and acknowledging the way that a counterfeit of Satan attempts to appear as a truth of the Lord is the first step to overcoming the temptations.

The second thing in this regard deals with Jesus' response to Satan's seductions.  Jesus counters with Scripture.  The difference between Jesus' usage and Satan's can be summarized as interpretive methodology.  While Satan pulled verses out of context to support his position, Jesus took the passages in context and applied from that context.  In this way, it can be easily concluded that Satan's application was wrong and Jesus' right, thus indicating that not every hermeneutic has the same worth. In fact, some interpretations may even be, dare we say, wrong.

Getting back to the sincere concern of Jenna, who fell to her temptations because, as she claimed, God doesn't speak loudly enough.  Jesus shows that hearing God's voice and responding to temptations in reliance upon His voice is directly related to how dependent we are on the Word and how committed we are to proper interpretive methodologies.  Needless to say, this requires disciplined and diligent study that is guided by a dedication to acceptable interpretations.  We should then work hard to interpret the Word the way it is intended to be, so that we can overcome every temptations of the enemy!

Gleaning Wisdom from and before Failure

By the second decade of the twentieth century, the automobile industry was taking off.  However, there was one potential hiccup and major hurdle to the industry's growth: rubber.  At that time, synthetic rubbers were still in their infancy and would not be able to fill the demands.  In reaction to the growing need, in 1928, Henry Ford went to Brazil and purchased over 6,200 square miles of Amazon river, beachfront property.  Fordlandia was formed.

Ford sent some of his top engineers and managers who had streamlined his revolutionary mass-production Ford facilities.  The men went down to Fordlandia and, having hired local farmers to live and work in the city, planted hundreds of perfectly symmetrical rows of rubber trees along the banks of Rio Tapajos.

However, the managers and engineers that Ford sent down to Brazil had little to no knowledge of tropical agriculture.  And, not knowing anything about growing rubber trees or tropical farming at all, Fordlandia was a continual and repeated failure.  In 1945, when Ford's grandson took the company over, Fordlandia had incurred a slew of violent local uprisings, had been unsuccessfully relocated further down the Amazon, and was finally sold for a $20 million loss.

The point is that, while Henry Ford saw a need and formed a solution to solve it, because he lacked the information and expertise to accomplish his goals it was an utter failure.  Despite the fact that Ford dumped valuable resources of money and manpower, it was all for naught.  The project failed definitively for a whole litany of reasons, but the chief among them was Ford's own pride.  Henry believed that the skills and tactics that had made him an automobile baron would be equally useful in farming rubber trees.  He was wrong.

Often times we, like Henry Ford, will be faced with issues that we, like Ford, will choose to take on by our own wit or grit.  As Solomon writes, "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall (Pro. 16:18)."  We need to always remember that while we may have our own plans and our own ways to deal with the scenarios that we are faced with, it is in the Lord that we are established (Pro. 16:9).

Consider the Parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:13-21), who because the harvest had been so fruitfully plentiful, he tore down his barn to big a larger one to store all of his surplus. Yet before he can lay the first brick, the Lord calls him out, demanding his life that very night.  The primary point of the parable is that the man who stores up riches for himself has no riches in heaven.  However, a secondary and equally important point is that we cannot know when or what God has for us if we are continually making plans apart from His guidance and separated from His presence.

James, in his epistle, picks up on this theme when he says that we do not know what tomorrow may bring for we are but mists that are here today but vanish tomorrow.  Therefore, we should say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that (James 4:13-15)."  This hits a nerve at the heart of our culture that so heralds individualism, self-expression, and personal power.  But apart from the Lord blessing are very step and sustaining us from breath to breath, there is not a single thing that we are capable of doing.  

Therefore, we should seek His will not only to bless our plans, but also to help us determine them as well, remembering that God desires to guide our steps in order that we would walk in accordance with His will (Psa. 37:23-24; Pro. 20:24; Jer. 10:23).  So that we would not walk in the footsteps of Fordlandia, we should always strive to come to God in humility so that He would guide and equip us for every work that He has already prepared for us to do.  Praise be to God who directs and blesses!

Becoming Good Friends

Friends are powerful.  That statement, though true, needs qualification.  Friends can be either powerful for our good growth or powerful for our dire demise.  The reality is that friends hold sway over us.  They can determine how we talk, what we do for recreation, or what we eat for dinner.  They can teach us what to think, how to dress, or even how to believe.  Much like wielding a chainsaw like a butter knife, neglecting the power of friends can be dangerous and disastrous.

A friend, by way of introductory definitions, is a person who is known and who knows you.  There is an intimacy to a friend's knowledge that goes beyond mere acquaintance.  A friend can be predictable while their knowledge of you can make you predictable to them.  They are supporters while needing support just as they are secure while needing security.  The conundrum of friendship is that it is, by nature, a symbiotic relationship, meaning that friends are only friends if it is agreed upon by both parties involved and that the relationship necessitates give and take.  It is the complex dependency of friendship that gives it its power.  Understanding the nature of friendship can be valuable in ascertaining the purpose of friendship.

There are many important reasons for friendship, many more than the scope of this dialogue permits; however, a summary statement of the primary purpose of friendship might be useful: dependent accountability.  This phrase points to the two major purposes and functions of friends.  As friends, we are dependent on one another, not in nearly the sense or degree that we are dependent on the Lord, but friends need each other.  This dependency of friendship is the need for accountability.

A friend serves to hold the other accountable.  This could be as simple as the need for punctuality or as profound as the need to pray.  A friend challenges the other to live to biblical ethics and should call them out when they may stray.  Moreover, a true friend should be willing to test the other in order that they may grow in sanctification.  "As iron sharpens iron (Pro. 27:27)," is one of the major goals of friendship, but the quest for spiritual growth and wisdom is not the only reason for friends.

Friends are also there to comfort and to be relied upon when the ground gets shaky and the tempests swell (Pro. 17:17; Ecc. 4:9-10).  When life hits us, a true friend is the comfort of God that can help empathize and weep with us, or teach and guide us through the darkest nights.  Friends thus serve both to help sanctify but also to live in peace and joy.  Friends can be the personal hands and feet of our Lord.  The power of friendship quickly rises to the surface among further examination.

This should prompt two separate but related meditative queries: (1) who are my friends, and (2) how am I being a good friend?  To be sure, these are not "once-and-for-all" questions.  Rather, we should periodically examine the nature of our friendships, both our friends as well as ourselves as friends.  In this way, we will truly live out our Christ-likeness in a manner that is pleasing to Him.  Let us then press on to have good friends that make us good friends!

Wisdom as a Matter of Reliance

There's an old adage,"When the going gets tough, the tough get going."  Many people subscribe to this method of manifest destiny and individualism when faced with the challenges of a life that can be unsure.  The pull-up-your-bootstraps tachnique for handling the difficulties of this life, though, is upon a presuppositional fallacy, namely that humans can handle life on their own.

Needless to say, if we break down this fallacy, it quickly dissolves to a more foundational flaw in thinking.  The foundational flaw is a misunderstanding of the character of God coupled with a misunderstanding of the nature between man and God.  God, as the infinite and omnipotent Creator, is the supreme source of all truth and knowledge.  Clearly, inside of this scope is the knowledge of life, known as wisdom.

Wisdom generally refers to the knowledge of living, how to live right.  In any situation that challenges us, whether emotionally, physically, relationally, or whatever, there is a right way to handle it, a correct method to overcome the situaton.  Wisdom then, defined, is the attainment of the correct and right way to live life, which is particularly relevant when life hits us.

The Bible equates the beginning of wisdom with the fear of the Lord (Psa. 111:10; Pro. 1:7; 9:10).  This fear is two-fold: reverance for who He is and dread at His power.  Often we understand the fear of the Lord in the former with a neglect for the latter but they are, in fact, infinitely inseparable and interelated.  The dread of the Lord arises out of recognizing who He is, His character and nature.  If we are to make the right decisions, then we have to base our decisions on this fear of the Lord, on wisdom.

Additionally, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, not its end.  The end of wisdom, though, arises from the beginning.  The fear of the Lord is a cause.  When we fear the Lord, that fear will motivate us to do one of two things: either we will run away from Him in terror, or we will run towards Him in love and reliance.  Wisdom's end is found in the latter.

Wisdom, then, is the actualization of belief.  When we believe and rely on the Lord, then wisdom is truly wise.  Dependence and reliance on the Lord is wisdom acting on the lives of the wise.  The wise are wise becuase of their utter dependence on the Lord.  If we are to become a people of wisdom, then we must rely on the Lord.  This must be operationalized in our lives, particularly when life throws curve balls.  How well we swing at those errant pitches has nothing to do with our ability, it is only based on the measure of our dependence on the Lord.  Thus, the old adage revised: "when the going gets tough, the wise turn to God."

For further reading: Isa. 59:1; Jer. 29:11-13; Psa. 28:1; 55:1; 145:18; see also the Book of Proverbs, particularly ch. 1-31.