Proverbs 9:10 perfectly captures the essence of true wisdom:

"The fear of the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom".

Simplistic and unhip as it may sound, I believe this really is the foundation upon which all true wisdom is built upon. "....and a knowledge of the holy, [is] understanding," says the rest of the verse. When we seek God and His truth for our lives above all else, we have an immovable point of reference for addressing all of life's other issues.

If when we make a conscious choice to give our hearts to Christ and allow Him to be LORD of every area of our lives, we still keep seeking wisdom and answers outside of Him, then do we really believe in Him and His Word? Do we really believe... Him?

If we truly believe that He is who He says He is, and we gave our hearts to Him for those "reasons", why do we continue to seek wisdom outside of Him? I think sometimes we forget that Christ and His express written word (the Bible) are one and the same.

"I am the truth." John 14:6.

"...know the truth and the truth shall set you free." John 8:32

"Sanctify them by the truth. Thy word is truth." John 17:17.

For many years I believed in God and I sincerely, though superficially, believed in the Bible but I still gave credence to many sources of information about what was best for me, advice and knowledge outside of God. Many of the struggles I faced bear testimony to it. If there was no apparent, upfront evil in something, it must be ok, or at least not that bad, I reasoned. Sure, it's not the Bible, but that's ok. God speaks to us many different ways, right?

But after rededicating my life to Him (whole other post), and He began the pruning and refining process on my life, it quickly became apparent that God's definition of wisdom (and pretty much everything else), is vastly different and infinitely superior to our own, no matter how spiritual and good other sources of apparent wisdom might come across.

And it wasn't just because I read verses like "My ways are not your ways...." (Isaiah 55:8-9), or "The wisdom of the world is foolishness to God. " (I Corinthians 3:19) and then intellectually, but very sincerely, agreed with them.

It was because I literally started seeing in a very real and tangible way, the difference in even the tiniest details of my day to day life, and experiencing "A-ha!" moments like, "So that's what God meant when He said....." or "So THIS is what happens when we disregard this commandment...." I saw it first hand in a way that a casual observer might say I was crazy or "extreme" in my perceptions. But it clicked:

The wisdom of God really is so far above what we can imagine, but we will never "get it", or much less experience and embrace it, as long as we are patting ourselves on the back comfortably satisfied with hip, easy to understand, socially acceptable knock-offs, including substituting man made ideologies for actual truth.

Genuine Bible truth is so deep and so wide that it defies words, and can only be experienced in order to be understood. That's when I started realizing that even much of the teaching coming out of collective mainstream Christianity was merely a highly sanitized and spiritualized version of pop culture and mass market pop psych, rather than sound, authentic, heart transforming Bible truth. Slapping Jesus' name on something can make it appear holy when in reality, it's just Lysoled advice taken from the pages of Cosmo or quotable social media superstars.

"For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear." II Timothy 4:3

Real wisdom is also supposed to seep into every nook and cranny of our lives. It informs even the seemingly insignificant details and decisions in our daily lives. It’s not just about the big things. It’s about recognizing that the big things are made up of lots of tiny ones, and that true wisdom goes there too; the nuts and bolts of our daily lives.

When we make the choice to not just believe in Christ, but to simply believe Him and take Him at His word, He begins to remove the world-colored glasses and starts giving us real vision and insight that we had no idea even existed.

"...I will show you great and unsearchable things you do not know." (Jeremiah 33:3). And he keeps giving it as long as we keep looking for it in His word, receiving it, and obeying it.

"My [children], if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding—indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God." Proverbs 2:1-5

"If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you." James 1:5

But that's the key: we have to want to want it, and we have to want to be changed and transformed by it, even when it stabs huge holes into our over inflated egos, and challenges our pride, self-sufficiency, and socially acceptable sins. And even when it makes us look weird (read: uptight, narrow-minded, legalistic) to others.

And here's the thing that few fail to understand. God's wisdom breeds LIFE. It breeds health, it builds up, it strengthens, and it heals in very real and tangible ways. It gives and never takes. That's what I want for this earthly life: Health. Strength. Healing. I want that in every area of my life.

Because our earthly life sets us up for heavenly eternal life. The emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual benefits we enjoy as a result of obedience in this earthly life, are a foretaste of the "benefits" of eternal life, for lack of a better word.

I fully embrace "As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." (Joshua 24:15), even if "My house" is just me at this time. I don't want anything in my life that is not of God as expressed in his written word, no matter how beneficial or harmless it may appear. I want HIS wisdom, His vision, His truth, unconventional, hard to grasp or odd as it may appear, because:

"For those who find Me find life..." Proverbs 8:35

I choose life.