"The Art of Living Skillfully"

"Many people think that what's written in the Bible has mostly to do with getting people into heaven - getting right with God, saving their eternal souls.  It does have to do with that, of course, but not mostly.  It is equally concerned with living on this earth - living well, living in robust sanity.  In our Scriptures, heaven is not the primary concern, to which earth is a tag-along afterthought.  'On earth as it is in heaven' is Jesus' prayer.

'Wisdom' is the biblical term for this on-earth-as-it-is-in-heaven everyday living.  Wisdom is the art of living skillfully in whatever actual conditions we find ourselves.  It has virtually nothing to do with information as such, with knowledge as such.  A college degree is no certification of wisdom - nor is it primarily concerned with keeping us out of moral mud puddles, although it does have a profound moral effect upon us.

Wisdom has to do with becoming skillful in honoring our parents and raising our children, handling our money and conducting our sexual lives, going to work and exercising leadership, using words well and treating friends kindly, eating and drinking healthily, cultivating emotions within ourselves and attitudes toward others that make for peace.  Threaded through all these items is the insistence that the way we think of and respond to God is the most practical thing we do. 

In matters of everyday practicality, nothing, absolutely nothing, takes precedence over God."
- Eugene H. Peterson, THE MESSAGE

I truly believe that our relationship with God should directly impact absolutely every area of our lives. It should turn us upside down and inside out.  His passionate, sacrificial love is best seen in His intimate acquaintance with every part of who we are.  And that amazing love should play out in every facet of how we live life {Psalm 139}.

His call for us is to pursue wisdom.  It's one of the reasons why I counsel, coach, and write.  I know that your schedule is busy and that there are many things that call for your attention.  Thank you for continuing to invite me into your day, allowing me to share some of the "a-ha" moments that God brings onto my path.

Placing those morsels onto the table of our daily lives gives me great joy!  And hopefully, in that process, the complex, beautiful mosaic of who we are is being re-defined and re-shaped to look more and more like the image of our precious Savior, Jesus Christ.

And in the sharing, I'm being challenged to stretch and grow, too. 

Linda

"Real wisdom, God's wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others.  It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings,

not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced ..."

~ James 3 {The Message} 

~ mosaic by MissyV110