Mans Wisdom

A friend made an off handed comment the other day.  “That’s all just man’s wisdom” he said.  This has been chewing at me for a couple days and i have been trying to pinpoint why.  I think i figured it out.

Man has no wisdom aside from what God has given him.  Solomon could have asked for anything, but he asked for wisdom and God was pleased with his request and granted it to him.  Did you ever wonder about what Solomon actually obtained?  Do you think he just got a better understanding of the scriptures?  I highly doubt it.  As an observant man once told me, everything in the bible is true but everything which is true is not in the bible.  If you haven’t heard this before i would encourage you to chew on it, even to try and disprove it.

Through my varied professional and academic education i have learned broadly about “man’s wisdom”.  In this education i have learned one thing most prominently.  All existence is governed by universal laws.  We have different names for the laws, some are physics, some are mathematics, quantum mechanics, philosophy, leadership, business principles, theology, etc.  One lesson that sticks with me more than most is that God created these universal laws and existence does not stray from them.  Mankind has only discovered these laws, not created them.  Even though many of these laws are not stated specifically in the bible, they are just as real and valid as the ten commandments.

The comment made by my friend has been chewing at me because i believe it insulted the work and minds of great people who have come before us.  Many people have devoted their life to understanding the universal laws that govern our existence.  Saying “that is just man’s wisdom” implies that this knowledge is optional, like “I can read the bible and I’ve never read that in the bible so it may not be true.”

Really?  OK then, lets test the laws of gravity -care to jump off a bridge? Or how about inertia, -why not stop out in front of a care traveling at 60MPH?  Have you ever tried to develop an employee or mentee without applying good leadership?  Try implementing a significant change and intentionally breaking the rules of change management, see what happens.

BTW, i believe if you read the bible and digest the stories therein, you will also be able to identify many of these universal laws.  Moses engaged the laws of organizational leadership, Nehemiah engaged the laws of change management (actually all seven prominent principles), Noah applied mechanics laws (even though he didn’t know it) and made the ark float, Cain defied the laws of anatomy and physiology and killed his brother (maybe unknowingly), Jesus used psychology principles to teach (seems only fair, he created them!  ). 

Man’s wisdom is not really man’s.  Like everything, we only steward it.  I believe wisdom is a gift of God, he graciously hid some things so that the ones he created curious by nature wouldn’t get bored!