Have you ever looked at a group of people and thought, "no way, I am not going to find what I am looking for here?"
When I am looking for inspiration I usually go off by myself somewhere. I will find a new book I am interested in or some music that has moved me in the past. I then typically head out into the wild of nature some where. I'm not really as wild as some of you might be thinking right now. The places I go usually have trails and sometimes it might be the wildness of the waves on the coast of a cozy little town like Cannon beach. But all the same I find a movement in my soul when I encounter something not made by the hands of mankind.
Sometimes I really seem to find the inspiration I am looking for and sometimes it seems to allude me. I get so frustrated on those days. I set this time aside to come out here and find God, find clarity, find vision, find wisdom. I end up disappointed and confused. It almost feels like going to a Chinese restaurant when what you really wanted was a burrito.
In Job chap 28 the search for wisdom is described the same way. Mankind knows how to carve away at the earth, where to find all of the precious gems and metals. We have mines for silver and gold. We find ways to pry out emeralds and rubies we even know how to shine them up and make them sparkle. But when it comes to wisdom, true wisdom we are clueless. What to do with our lives, where to go next, how to understand what is happening to us and why. These are the answers we really want, these are more precious than any of the sparkelies in the earth. We just can't seem to find them.
Job concludes wisdom comes from fearing God and understanding from shunning what is evil. Aligning our lives with God, following his lead turns out to be the wisest thing we can do. The question then comes where do we find out what God has in mind. I ask myself this question every time I come on this prayer retreat. Where will I find God, how will I obtain wisdom this year. So I pack my bag full of too many books to read in three days and prepare to hunker down in my room and really seek God through whatever means necessary and into all hours of the night.
This plan however makes me annoyed at the get-togethers we have with the other pastor's who are here. I get taken away from my all important books and solitude. Each year I am tempted to skip all the gatherings and just disappear into solitude. Today however as I met with some of the other guys who are here. I realized it might be possible to find wisdom in the God fearing men and women around me. The flesh and blood ones sitting right there looking at me rather than just the words on a page written by someone far, far away.
The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom right? Well there are many people around us who have been living God-fearing lives for a long time. Perhaps they have found more than just the beginning of wisdom and perhaps we just might be able to learn some wisdom from them.
I would encourage you to look around. Notice the people around you, put your book down, and find out what God has taught them.
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