Summary: Let me begin by admitting that it's a little bit of a tall order for a preacher to try saying something new about "wisdom." There's a certain school of thought that says, if it's new, well then by definition, it can't be wisdom. Wisdom is timeless - the very opposite of new. It isn't simply that wisdom "offers perspective," wisdom is perspective. It's an animating power in its own right. It's not a particular set of facts - if you just learn this or that, well then there you go: you've got wisdom. Wisdom is more like a way of knowing. I remember when my dad taught me to drive stick in the empty Sunday afternoon parking lot in front of our local competitor to Woolworth's, which was called the Ben Franklin 5 and 10. Do you remember learning to drive stick? It's all about the feet, right? Learning that strange two-step with the clutch and the gas. I remember my father explaining that move from zero to first gear, with his hands looking like they were playing invisible bongo drums, left...right...left...right. There are facts about how to drive stick. Of course there are. But until you can actually drive stick, it's as if the facts make no sense, isn't it? You have to know them in some deeper way before you can understand them. You need to have the peculiar wisdom of driving before any of the facts make sense. It's like it says in the Book of Proverbs: "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting, get understanding" (Proverbs 4:7).
