In Search of Wisdom

Thomas Merton collected several sayings from the desert fathers. Here is a saying/story I came across last week. As you read it, I ask you the question: How are insults a path to wisdom?

Once there was a disciple of a Greek philosopher who was commanded by his Master for three years to give money to everyone who insulted him. When this period of trial was over, the Master said to him: “Now you can go to Athens and learn wisdom.” When the disciple was entering Athens he met a certain wise man who sat at the gate insulting everybody who came and went. He also insulted the disciple who immediately burst out laughing. “Why do you laugh when I insult you?” said the wise man. “Because,” said the disciple, “for three years I have been paying for this kind of thing and now you give it to me for nothing.” “Enter the city,” said the wise man, “it is all yours.” Abbot John used to tell the above story saying: “This is the door of God by which our fathers rejoicing in many tribulations enter into the City of Heaven.”

So… how are insults a path to wisdom? Are they? So often we think of God speaking to us through people – and usually, I think , it is in their words of encouragement that we hear God’s voice. I don’t believe that God is in the insult-business, but might God shape us through insult and criticism? Or is it only in spite of these things that we grow in wisdom?

Tags: Advice, Books by Heidi
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I’d like to bring our discussion of age and authority up to the front of this blog. For a little extra context, read the comments on “Being perfect: it’s not your job…” starting with the question in Chelsey’s comment.

For those of us who are young(ish) people in ministry or young people preparing for ministry, we may, because of our age, find it challenging to live into the clothes of our calling. We may feel like we’re playing dress-up – like the clothes are too big for us. Or perhaps some of us feel prepared and ready – but not perceived as prepared or ready because of our age (which serves to decrease the feeling of preparedness and readiness!).

My husband and his father both looked rather young when they graduated from seminary. Both of them grew facial hair while they were waiting to be called to a church – so that they would appear older. I can’t grow a beard, but I have often felt the insecurity of my youth in my ministry.

There is a difference, isn’t there, between an authority that has grown over time and an authority that is bestowed upon us. The authority that someone has who has been in ministry for a long time is received well because it has stood the test of time – that person has earned the respect of congregants and communities. But when one is ordained, words are said to the congregation that may sound strange when spoken of a 26 year old – or when spoken of someone who hasn’t had a chance to prove himself or herself.

The Christian Reformed Church’s form for ordination of a minister of the Word charges the congregation in this way:

And you, brothers and sisters, joyfully receive your minister in the Lord and honor her. Remember that through him God himself speaks to you. Receive the Word which she, according to the Scripture, shall preach to you, not as the word of human beings but, as it is in truth, the Word of God… Submit to those whom God has placed over you, for they care for you as those who will give account.

This is the amazing reality of God. When God calls us to something, he works through us to do more than what we could ever possibly do on our own. Rachel said it well: “Sure, I may not have the life experience of half my congregation but if God calls you to do something, He’ll equip you with the proper wisdom and knowledge you need.”

What do you think? About age and authority? What about authority and gender? Looking forward to continuing discussion on this topic.

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First, I invite you to the discussion about pastoral authority and youth that sprung up in the comments on the last post. Follow the discussion, if you’d like!

And next: I learned a new term in a book I read recently on the subject of discernment. The term is liminal space: “that anxious space of ‘not knowing,’ that in-between time when the known and familiar have passed and the new has not yet come into being.” (Wilkie Au and Noreen Cannon Au, The Discerning Heart. New York: Paulist Press, 2006, p. 205.)

Are you there in that in-between space? Perhaps you’re between jobs or relationships. Maybe you are graduating this year from a school and you’re looking ahead to that liminal space. Like nature, we abhor vacuums. We don’t like unfilled space. We want to get to the next thing or the next person as soon as possible. When someone asks us what we do for a living, we want to have an immediate answer. It’s hard to say, “I’m not really sure what’s next.”

The authors of A Discerning Heart encourage us to think positively about ‘liminal space’: “liminal space is psychologically and spiritually significant because it is where real transformation can take place” (p. 208). They go on to quote Jesuit Anthony de Mello:

Some people will never learn anything because they grasp too soon. Wisdom, after all, is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling…. To know exactly where you’re headed may be the best way to go astray. Not all who loiter are lost. (p. 209)

This is kind of a different way to think about being unsure. Maybe not being somewhere is exactly where you need to be.

Tags: Books, Decisions by Heidi
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