Essay
70 (4/23/05)
A DREAM ABOUT WISDOM
The Scriptures say something to the effect that if you have a dream,
tell it as a dream, but if you speak God’s word, speak it faithfully (Jer.
23:28). While this was a dream it may well have some reference to God’s
will. The dream was about Ouida. She was about to give a speech – rare for
her – and was confident about it until she recognized a noted authority in
her subject in the audience. I reassured her, pointing out that one of
such expertise would be more forbearing than critical, and for her to go
for it. She would do great.
Before it was time for her to do her thing, I worked my way over to the
distinguished scholar and introduced myself. I made it a fun thing,
telling him that my wife was a bit intimidated by the presence of such a
knowledgeable person as himself. He was gracious in his response, saying
that he was confident Ouida would do well for herself.
But there was more to it than that. It was evident by his demeanor as well
as things he told me about himself that there was no question in his mind
but that he was indeed the authority in his field. One could see that he
knew it all. One should be intimidated by his presence! – except that he
didn’t actually say that.
I went back to Ouida and told her that she had no problem – for she knows
more than the noted guest, and is wiser than he! While she gave me that
look of disbelief, I explained that "the great one" thinks he knows when
he doesn’t. You don’t know either, I told her, but you know you don’t
know. That makes you more knowledgeable and wiser than he, for he doesn’t
know, but doesn’t know that he doesn’t know. Neither do you know, but you
know that you don’t know.
I awoke before Ouida gave her speech, but I’m sure she did great!
Some of you may recognize that the dream was actually about Socrates, the
old philosopher who walked the streets of ancient Athens (fourth century
B.C.) and questioned people about the way they lived and thought. He was
called a gadfly because he disturbed people who were content to be
superficial and uncritical in their thinking. But he thought of himself as
a midwife in that he helped in giving birth to ideas. His most famous
dictum: "The unexamined life is not worth living."
Socrates himself was disturbed when he learned that the Oracle
(soothsayer) who sat in the temple at Delphi had pronounced him the wisest
man in Athens. While the Oracle was never known to be wrong, Socrates set
out to prove her wrong this time, for he knew he was not the wisest. He in
fact had a way of saying ‘I know nothing." He did not mean that he had no
knowledge at all, but in view of all that is to be known he could affirm
his ignorance. He taught his students that the more one learns the more
ignorant he realizes he is. In view of the vast ocean of knowledge before
us, we are all but wadding in the shallows.
But the old philosopher was in for a surprise, for as he conversed with
the renowned wise men and sages of Athens, he discovered that they all
considered themselves knowledgeable – when he knew enough to know that
they were not. He proved that the Oracle was right after all. He was the
wisest man in Athens! The others did not know, but they did not know they
did not know. Neither did he know, but he knew that he did not know!
It is the humble man who is wise, Socrates taught. Learning humbles one,
for he realize that the more he learns the more there is to be learned.
The more one learns, the more ignorant he realizes he is! Take modern
medicine, which does things that boggle the mind. The wise doctor knows
that his science is yet in its infancy. My grandson is into
air-conditioning, and he keeps going to school, financed by his company.
He tells me of huge, complex systems that serve skyscrapers, and even more
complex systems in hospitals. "Grandpa," he tells me, "I’ll probably go to
school off and on all my life, and I’ll never learn it all."
That is humility and that is wisdom. They go together – one can’t be wise
who is not humble, and one who is wise will be humble. The wise man
realizes he is on a journey in quest of truth – a journey that never ends.
A "know-it-all" in any field is a fool. The problem is that he can’t see
that he is a fool. If he ever sees it, that is when he starts being wise.
That must be what Paul means in 1 Corinthians 3:18: "If anyone thinks that
he is wise in this world, let him become a fool that he might be wise."
What a remarkable statement – become a fool that one might be wise!. It is
what Socrates was saying four centuries earlier. When one "becomes a fool"
– realizes his ignorance – he then begins the journey of wisdom, one
fraught with difficulty and hardship. If love is the mother of wisdom,
pain is its father. It is painful to face the fact of one’s ignorance.
This may be what the Bible means in saying, "The fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom" (Ps. 111:10) Reverence might be a better translation
than fear. In reverencing God we humble ourselves.
Humility would serve us well as we "do" religion. Theology is a worthy
study, but theologians, who like to create systems, know too much. And the
"prophets" among us – who have all the answers about end times – would be
wise to emulate the humility of Paul in the face of God’s ways: "how
inscrutable are his ways and his paths past tracing out" (Rom. 11:33).
Some TV evangelists and dispensational theologians have no problem at all
fathoming the mysteries of God. Poor Paul, he just didn’t have their
wisdom! The lowly apostle has a word for us all: "If anyone thinks that he
knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know" (1 Cor. 8:2).
A Princeton professor told his students that the young cannot be wise, for
wisdom is a long, rugged journey, and it takes lots of time. That may
overstate the case, but his point was well made. One can begin the journey
is his youth, but even in old age – after a lifetime of learning -- he
will still hear the call of wisdom beckoning in the distance. And we
traverse the rugged course with the two essentials for wisdom – to bear
and forbear.
The foolish and the wise alike have their foibles. The big difference is
that while the world sees the fool’s foibles, he doesn’t; and while the
world doesn’t see the foibles of the wise, he does.
Note
All these essay – now 70 in number – are available at
www.leroygarrett.org
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