It is just a full week since the UK entered ‘ Lockdown’ and a couple of months since we heard that such a thing could be done. We heard of Wuhan as a far away city, in a country where the state has power and we shrugged.
Now we have to get through Lockdown. A situation where many are bored ,isolated and lounging around at home whilst essential workers work like never before, in situations they didn’t ask to train for, and working into exhaustion, fear, sorrow and grief.
What if ? The question of the day and of the night. What if ? a question with tones of fear.
But where shall wisdom be found ? And where is the place of understanding ? Knowledge comes bit by bit and we think we know full well how much knowledge we need and how much more we wish we had. But wisdom lingers, and now we need wisdom.
Before Covid 19 pandemicked us all, the fear on the block was FOMO. Fear of missing out. ‘Yes, count me in’, for the latest experience, or to be at the latest special destination on a lonely planet not lonely any more. You could feel the powerful force of anxiety, competitiveness, and one-upmanship and it was named Fear.
Now whether we can accurately measure levels of fear in appropriate units, I doubt. How would we do it? Adrenaline levels? Heart rate? A shaking index ? Nausea? Fear is real. We need fear to make us take note , to note that thing bigger than us and the presence of something awesome which we cannot control. FOMO sets our bodies on a course of excessive stress.
But for now, the fear is that we are missing out on wisdom. The ancient writer of the book of Job in the Bible wrote this,’ The fear of the Lord- that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding .’ It sounds a bit philosophical. One of Jesus’ followers, James, wrote years later, ‘If you lack wisdom ask God!’ That was for the daily business of living in a hard time.
Absolutely, I lack wisdom and to follow these writers through I’m yelling out to God to ‘Give Wisdom, Please Give Wisdom for the business of living in a world with Covid19!’ In that cry we can acknowledge that someone awesome and much bigger than us has control and we can fear the Lord as the beginning of our own wisdom as we rely on God.
BrightStarCentre 