The Humility of Wisdom

It takes a certain level of humility to exercise wisdom, because a lot of the time, wisdom is more about not doing something than doing something. Because often wisdom is in the absence of action, it doesn’t get noticed. No one ever knows what you didn’t do – they only know what you did.

If you are in an argument, and you decide to exercise wisdom, and not say the first thing that comes to your mind, when the conversation is over, the absence of saying that thing may have made things work out better in the end (or easier), but the other person has no more (or less) respect for you. They have no idea you’ve acted in wisdom.

The only reward for exercising wisdom is from God – so wisdom is best served with humility and faith. If you go around and say, ‘Did you notice what I didn’t say there??’, all maturity is sucked out of the situation and the reward for using wisdom is lost. This is like the Pharisees who pray with big, theological words, in a booming voice for all to hear. Jesus says they have received their reward in full (the respect of those in earshot), but those who pray in their closet, where no one hears but God, ‘your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you’.

Wisdom is like the silence in sound; the stillness in a frenzy. No one even knows, but God.

Take some wisdom from the Tao te Ching:

Thirty spokes converge at the hub
but emptiness completes the wheel

Clay is shaped to make a pot,
and what's useful is its emptiness

Carve fine doors and windows,
but the room is useful in its emptiness

What is
is beneficial, while what is not
also proves useful