Wisdom of the Ages

"Wisdom is with the aged,
and understanding in length of days."
Job 12:12

I have an exercise for you. Don’t get nervous, it’s not a physical exercise but rather a mental one. I want you to sit back and think for a moment. Ask yourself this question: Of all that there is to be known in this world, how much do I think I know? One helpful way to picture this might be to take a blank sheet of paper. If the surface of the paper represents all that there is to be known, circle the amount of its surface that represents how much you know. Remember, it is all that there is to be known. Humanity, astronomy, history, theology, geography, philosophy, sociology, psychology, literature, etc.

We live in an age in which more knowledge is more accessible than ever, but in the end it only serves to show how little we truly know. I recently watched “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” Based on my performance during this show, my circle would be no bigger than the size of a dime on a standard sheet of paper. If you’re getting ready to make a real big circle, think of the last time you watched “Jeopardy.”

How big is your circle?

Ok, we’re moving into part B of the exercise. I want you to think about all of the really important things you know about life. The things that really matter in this life. What you know about how life works. What you know about what makes people truly happy. What you know about relationships that work and ones that don’t. The things that have surprised you and the things that have disappointed you. And as you think about all of these things that really matter, I want you to consider how much of this you knew at the age of 13. Is there any more confusing age than 13? Ok, what about when you were 20? Or even 30? Some of us can go on… 50? 60?

When it comes to the things that really matter in life, would you trust the most important things to the wisdom you possessed at the age of 13? Or 20? Or even 30? Depending on where you are in life, the answer is likely a resounding, “NO!” to any age significantly less that what you now possess.

I vividly recall a defining moment in my life as it relates to this kind of wisdom. Shortly after college graduation, my girlfriend and I drove 23 hours from Flagstaff, Arizona to Omaha, Nebraska to visit my parents. There was one additional member in our traveling party: a 12 week old German Shorthair puppy named Jake. Jake was cute as a button, but he was hell-bent on wreaking havoc. It wasn't that he was a bad dog, he just had more energy and enthusiasm than he knew what to do with. He had been bred for physical stamina and determination and Jake was short on neither.

The defining moment came within a few hours of our arrival at my parents’ house. You see, Jake was used to being an indoor dog but visiting my parents meant that he would have to adjust to being outside in a yard most of the time. While Jake loved being outside, he really had no interest in being out there alone. He began to bark. And bark. And bark. My father showed patience and waited about 30 minutes before approaching me with some advice. I don’t remember his exact words, I only remember my response. I haven’t mentioned this yet, but I had recently graduated with a degree in Psychology. I knew all kinds of things about encouraging and extinguishing behaviors that my dad didn’t know because they don’t teach you those things in business school. I respectfully informed my dad that Jake didn’t need to be punished, he needed to be ignored. If the behavior wasn’t rewarded, it would simply go away.

Jake was 12 weeks old when I visited my parents that Summer. When he was 18 months old I had to buy an electric bark collar to control his barking. Jake figured out how to manipulate the collar. When he was 3 years old, I took him to a dog trainer who was stunned at how determined this dog was to bark. It took smacking him on the rear with wooden dowels before he would stop. That dog barked until he went to his death several years later and, to be honest, I heard him barking in my head for at least a month after he was gone.

What went wrong? Somehow my training in psychology had failed me. It failed to account for the fact that this dog simply loved to bark. The joy and pleasure of barking was his reward. What psychology didn’t account for, the wisdom of my father would have – if only I had listened. Since Jake’s puppyhood, I have raised three other dogs to maturity. More significantly, my wife and I are in the process of raising four young children. None of them bark. I have decided to trust the wisdom of my father rather than the wisdom of the laboratory when it comes to discipline.

It was pretty silly of me to trust my wisdom at the age of 22 rather than my father’s wisdom at the age of 59. Sometimes we choose to learn the hard way. In my case, I spent the next 9 years of Jake’s life reaping the consequences of my decision. By the time I had chosen to do something different, it was too late – his behavioral patterns were as fixed as concrete. I just thank God that I learned this hard lesson on a dog rather than one of my kids.

My dad is 73 now and still much wiser than I am. Over the years, I have discovered three things about him: (1) he shares his wisdom out of love and concern for others, (2) his concern is shown the most on the things that matter the most, and (3) he is rarely wrong.

Whether you have an earthly father as loving and wise as mine or not, the fact of the matter is that you do have a heavenly Father that displays the same concern about the things that matter the most. Unlike my earthly father, your heavenly Father is never wrong. He understands the way you think because He formed your mind. He understands what ultimately brings satisfaction and what ultimately brings pain because He created you. He knows what your purpose in life is because he authored that purpose from the beginning.

God’s Word, the Bible, is full of the things God wants you to know about living, about being satisfied and about having a purpose. It contains the wisdom of the ages because it was authored by the One who was before the ages.

Truth be told, I don’t want to depend on the wisdom I possessed at 13, 20, or 30 years old. And as I look back on how much I thought I knew back then and consider how much I still don’t know today… how much experience and wisdom I still lack this much farther down the road, I don’t want to trust the wisdom of my present age either.

Knowing that God is much like my earthly father in his love and concern for me, ultimately I want to depend on the wisdom that surpasses any age. The wisdom that comes down from the One who knows me and who knows you and who knows Himself better than anyone else. I want to walk in the wisdom of my heavenly Father.

Two more questions and one assignment:
1. Why are you hesitant to trust the wisdom of your heavenly Father? Is it a heart issue? Or a head issue? Do you doubt that He truly cares for you?
2. In what areas of life are you ignoring the wisdom of your heavenly Father? Relationships? Finances? Forgiveness? What will the consequences be?
3. Pick one thing that you can do this week to exercise trust in your Father’s wisdom.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths.
Be not wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones."

Proverbs 3:5-8