♪A Note of Thanks ♪
“God said, ask what I should give you?”...Solomon said, “Give Your servant an understanding mind and a hearing heart.” (I Kings 3:5; 9) Amplified Bible
These past few weeks during Prayer Meeting and Sunday worship, Chris Crain has been teaching us about Wisdom, this past Sunday’s sermon was “Wise or otherwise,” with a picture on the front of the worship guide of a man with holes in his jeans (the style now), tattoos on his arms standing next to a church sign that says “The imperfect church” (with the “R” placed backwards in the word imperfect).
We’ve been studying about wisdom, God’s versus man’s wisdom. In I Kings chapter 3, Solomon hadn’t been king for very long when God appeared to him in a dream. “Ask what I should give you,” God said. Various Bible versions translate what Solomon requested as wisdom or an understanding mind or heart. But the actual translation of the Hebrew says Solomon asked for a “hearing heart” so he could judge between good and evil.
Ancient Hebrews thought that the heart was more than an organ that pumped blood. The heart was thought to be the center of everything physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual. So when Solomon asked for a hearing heart, what he really wanted was for God to help him in every aspect of his life so he would be a wise and faithful king.
Today, we commonly call this wisdom. The word wisdom has Germanic and Greek roots that combine ‘seeing” or “vision” with “way” or “manner.” So to have wisdom, or to be wise, is to be able to see the way, to have vision for the proper course of action.
But how exactly do we use wisdom? It is the ability to discern what is proper in times of confusion and difficulty; to see past the traps of life and find our way forward to the truth. Wisdom is a gift that is intended to be nurtured and used for the benefit of others. Wisdom is not locked internally within us but is to be externally focused on improving and positively shaping the world in which we live.
Like Solomon, we can have “hearing hearts.” This phrase is a dazzling one, isn’t it? Hearing hearts. In one sense of the word the heart refers to intelligent action as well as the power of thought and will. We can combine this meaning with our modern western notation of the heart as the seat of empathy and emotion. So hearing hearts can mean intelligence and wisdom combined with love and compassion.
And perhaps this is the true wisdom we should seek: Intelligence to know right from wrong and compassion to understand how our actions and decisions influence those around us. Without either one of these aspects, wisdom is not fully formed: Passion and logic; Heart and mind. In the combination of these two is the wisdom that we seek. Solomon used his heart in accepting and resolving difficult problems.
Wisdom invites us to be emotionally connected to those around us. Wisdom is not easy. Wisdom is not a simple tool or possession. It is something that is continually sharpened and strengthened, discovered and developed by learning from our own experiences, by learning from the lives of others and staying connected to the community of faith around us. So may you today seek and ask for God’s Wisdom. May you think with your mind. May you stay attuned to your emotions. And may you hear with your heart God’s Spirit. Amen.
As we serve along-side each other, I remain,
Your friend,
Mark David Jackson
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Monday, January 4, 2010
After Christmas
♪A Note of Thanks ♪
On this crisp 30-something degree, first Monday after Christmas, after a brisk walk with heavy leather coat, gloves and toboggan on, I am sitting on a weather-worn teak garden bench looking out over the kitchen garden of the Botanical Gardens. It is in this place, many sunny days during the cold months, after a brisk walk, that I sit here to be quiet, pray, contemplate and listen to God, as I soak up the warmth of the Winter sun, shielded on this overlook from the wind and away from the hustle and bustle of life. It is as if I’m in the ‘cleft of the rock,’ safe from the outside cares of this world.
How did you fare over the holidays? Did you remember the good things of times past, with loved ones who are now gone from this life? Did you become sad or even weep? Did you feel lonely and perhaps unloved, even though you know there are those that love and care for you?
Over the time from Thanksgiving to Christmas, I sent and received Christmas cards, shared in meals with precious friends and loved ones, listened and participated in the most wonderful music this side of Heaven, gave and received gifts, and then over the weekend, made phone calls to friends and family. It was over this time period that I had moments when I couldn’t help but cry and shed tears. I can’t exactly explain it, but most times it was because of a loss in my life where a loved one had gone to Heaven or perhaps other kinds of losses where my heart is touched in the innermost part.
It was while making that last Christmas phone call on Sunday evening that I realized just how blessed we truly are. My friend, Paula, in San Antonio, had lost her mother to cancer and her father to a gruesome murder several years ago. She moved from Alabama to Texas to make a fresh start in her life. Life was just too painful here. She now has a job, has purchased an older two bedroom home, found a church where she serves in the bell choir, has loving friends, a sweet Boston terrier and works with the Girl Scouts. She has had several surgeries, but has learned to cope despite what has occurred in her life. She perseveres. She encourages others. She loves others. She helps others.
With these thoughts in mind, it is this kind of pain which rightly draws us to participate in communities of healing and to become communities of healing. God breaks into the world anew each time we tend to another’s wounds. One should never sit alone in the darkness of metanoia. God is there in the desiring of something different, in the shifting of perspective and the seeing anew of a familiar landscape. And God is there when we hold each others’ hands and trust the beauty of the process.
Joy and all good things to you and your family during Christmastide.
Happy New Year!
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus; there is room in my heart for You!
Joyfully serving alongside you,
Your friend,
Mark David Jackson
On this crisp 30-something degree, first Monday after Christmas, after a brisk walk with heavy leather coat, gloves and toboggan on, I am sitting on a weather-worn teak garden bench looking out over the kitchen garden of the Botanical Gardens. It is in this place, many sunny days during the cold months, after a brisk walk, that I sit here to be quiet, pray, contemplate and listen to God, as I soak up the warmth of the Winter sun, shielded on this overlook from the wind and away from the hustle and bustle of life. It is as if I’m in the ‘cleft of the rock,’ safe from the outside cares of this world.
How did you fare over the holidays? Did you remember the good things of times past, with loved ones who are now gone from this life? Did you become sad or even weep? Did you feel lonely and perhaps unloved, even though you know there are those that love and care for you?
Over the time from Thanksgiving to Christmas, I sent and received Christmas cards, shared in meals with precious friends and loved ones, listened and participated in the most wonderful music this side of Heaven, gave and received gifts, and then over the weekend, made phone calls to friends and family. It was over this time period that I had moments when I couldn’t help but cry and shed tears. I can’t exactly explain it, but most times it was because of a loss in my life where a loved one had gone to Heaven or perhaps other kinds of losses where my heart is touched in the innermost part.
It was while making that last Christmas phone call on Sunday evening that I realized just how blessed we truly are. My friend, Paula, in San Antonio, had lost her mother to cancer and her father to a gruesome murder several years ago. She moved from Alabama to Texas to make a fresh start in her life. Life was just too painful here. She now has a job, has purchased an older two bedroom home, found a church where she serves in the bell choir, has loving friends, a sweet Boston terrier and works with the Girl Scouts. She has had several surgeries, but has learned to cope despite what has occurred in her life. She perseveres. She encourages others. She loves others. She helps others.
With these thoughts in mind, it is this kind of pain which rightly draws us to participate in communities of healing and to become communities of healing. God breaks into the world anew each time we tend to another’s wounds. One should never sit alone in the darkness of metanoia. God is there in the desiring of something different, in the shifting of perspective and the seeing anew of a familiar landscape. And God is there when we hold each others’ hands and trust the beauty of the process.
Joy and all good things to you and your family during Christmastide.
Happy New Year!
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus; there is room in my heart for You!
Joyfully serving alongside you,
Your friend,
Mark David Jackson
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