Are you “wise” or just educated?

This is  a piece from the new Field Manual to accompany Wisdom Meets Passion that I wrote with my son Jared.

When Jared was about 17 he was given the assignment of writing about a Biblical character.  After much discussion he selected Solomon as the subject of his research.  Of course, as his Dad, I remembered my own Bible teachings from when I was a little boy.  And I knew that we recognize Solomon as “the wisest man who ever lived.”  But as Jared and I studied for his paper I was flabbergasted in not being able to find that claim made anywhere in the Bible.  Rather, here is how that scene is described when God told Solomon he could have anything he asked for:

In I Kings 3 we read:

⁵ In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee.

⁶ And Solomon said, Thou hast shewed unto thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee; and thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.

⁷ And now, O Lord my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in.

⁸ And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude.

⁹ Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?

¹⁰ And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.

Wow – Solomon didn’t ask for “wisdom” – rather, he asked for an understanding heart.  Finding that impacted me far more profoundly than it did Jared.  He was doing a research paper – I just discovered the key to what we consider “wisdom.”  I went back to my Personal Mission Statement and integrated that phrase – “an understanding heart.”  If that’s where wisdom originates, I want that in my life.  And I do think that’s a key component of wisdom.  Wisdom encompasses far more than just knowledge and facts.

What are other things that come to mind when you think of “wisdom?”

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Want a full dose of discovering your own “wisdom” and “passion?”  Join us on the Wisdom Meets Passion Cruise in February 2013