Aware

 It takes a bit of wisdom, humility, and self-awareness to realize you need wisdom. The fact that one acknowledges their need for more of it presupposes one possesses enough of it to realize their insufficiency in that area.

Some people just don’t have any wisdom to spare. Not even enough to acknowledge their need for it. If you’ve ever had the guilty pleasure of watching an epic fail video, or someone trying to run across a barely frozen lake only to fall through the ice halfway through, or someone who thought it was a good idea to tease any given animal at the zoo by sticking their face between the bars, you know some people can’t be helped in this world. The same goes for some in the church who are so set in their ways and cemented in their beliefs that though what they believe is contrary to scripture, they will hold to their position with a Charlton Heston type of death grip.

The genuinely ignorant are always proud of their ignorance. Not only do they not realize they need wisdom, they will not entertain the possibility that they might be wrong and the word of God is right. The idea that they could be mistaken is anathema to them, and they’re willing to call everyone a liar as long as they can continue to see themselves in the right.

Whenever they are called out, those needing wisdom but being unwilling to admit to it will lash out and accuse those pointing to the truth of scripture of judging and go on about the beam versus the speck. Leaving your wheelchair-bound wife for a woman half your age when no adultery was had is not a speck, my guy, no matter how you try to justify it.

When statistically speaking, pastors have the same divorce rate as those of the world, there’s a serious problem everyone’s pretending doesn’t exist because to confront it head-on would be to upset the apple cart, and for now, it’s just too lucrative to take that risk. It’s not about what’s Biblical, what’s ethical, moral, virtuous, or noble; it’s about what’s most lucrative at any given moment.

We make excuses for the inexcusable because it’s a way of justifying our own shortcomings. If a guy who’s supposed to be a prophet to the nations, gut puncher extraordinaire, can divorce and remarry just because she’s a newer model and is enamored with his spiritual mantle to the point of idolizing him, why can’t elder Bob or Deacon Eddie? Why can’t the guy who collects the offering on Sunday mornings, for that matter? You can’t expect the private to be more moral than the colonel, can you?

The lower we set the standard for those we deem in spiritual authority over us, the more of a license we think we have to live lukewarm, duplicitous lives. That’s why they are indulged. That’s why they are defended. That’s why they are allowed to continue pretending to be ministers of the gospel.

If God can make the rocks cry out, why would He settle for someone who thinks so little of Him that they disregard His instruction to be His mouthpiece? It’s a reasonable question, don’t you think? Yet, somehow, these are the same people who never ask for wisdom, who never self-assess, who have to be forced to take some time away from ministry because there’s too much heat in the kitchen, and the offerings are drying up.

James is focusing on those with sincere hearts who desire to grow, mature, press in, be perfected, and be complete. He is not, as yet, addressing the grifters, the cutouts, the foils, and the individuals who figure ministry is a lot easier than roofing in Florida in July.

It’s the reason I’ve always believed that the most effective ministers, preachers, pastors, or evangelists aren’t those who pop out of seminary mills every four years but rather those who were called by God and had no choice but to obey. It’s those who were hesitant about it because they knew the sacrifice it entailed. It's those who don’t see it as a career but a calling.

I’m not besmirching education by any means. There is a place for it, and certain careers require it, but as far as ministry is concerned, I believe you learn a lot more looking at it as a trade, where you apprentice and get discipled rather than sit in a classroom and hear some non-binary blue haired dude in a dress drone on about how God’s perfectly fine with expressions of hedonism and perversion because He knows the heart.  

Between shelling out fifty grand for a four-year degree from a seminary and volunteering at an orphanage in Africa, do the latter, and you’ll grow more than you would have had you done the former. I may not be an English professor, but even I can spot the difference between go and do and sit and learn.

Both Jude and James put the onus on the individual and their personal responsibility to initiate. Whether it’s knocking, seeking, or asking for wisdom, it is we who must ask that we might receive. God will not force wisdom upon you, but if you are wise enough to acknowledge you lack it, ask it of God, who gives it liberally and without reproach.

What this means is that God will never turn you away. He will not make you feel less than or unworthy if you ask for wisdom. He won’t call you a dummy and give you a wet willy, comparing you to others and decrying your aptitude; He gives wisdom without reproach. He is still Father, and you are still son and daughter, and it is His joy to see you yearn for more of Him.

That’s the beauty of all this: if you ask for wisdom, God will give it, and in the wisdom you are given, you discover Him more fully. True wisdom always leads to the foot of the cross.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.