Faith

Finished up James chapter 3 this morning. He talks about wisdom, and so I went to look up a definition. Took me on a wonderful(?) journey across the internet. Names like Socrates and Plato came up – have not really thought about those two since college. Then they dropped the names of others on me, along with their plays. More college memories.

Seems that Socrates was the first great philosopher. Now, the question is “was he?” He may have start the “Socratic Method” (look it up), but I seem to remember Job asking questions like Socrates talks about doing. Also seem to recall that “wisdom” was a thing discussed in the Old Testament – a thing to be desired. There is no confusion, probably just the fact that eventually the truth bursts forth.

Here in James, it seems clear to me that “wisdom” properly applied (lived) does not hurt others, but helps. It soothes, is full of mercy and helps to build up. It brings peace. Wisdom may be applied knowledge, but it is also applied truth – His truth.

Sometimes, that seems like what we say and hear has turned into. In one of Shakespeare’s sonnets it says “It is a tale full of sound and fury signifying nothing.” That is one the things that has stuck with me since high school (now that was a long time ago. There are days, when I get the feeling that my words are that way. There are other times when they are inciteful and precise without hurting other people. What we say and how we say it can be helpful or hurtful.

Reading James this morning got me caught up in chapter 3 where he talks about the tongue. The comparison of the tongue to a fire was almost real-time. What with the grass fire burning on Sherman Island right now, it’s easy to be very real about the the damage the tongue can do.

Then I looked up a cross reference to Proverbs…

My mind is spinning. Too many books being read by my eyes, feeding my mind, which then has to digest the information and then try to reconcile everything. In addition to my daily Bible reading, there is a copy of “The Idiot’s Guide to the Reformation” and then there is the Bay Hills 101 course I am in.

For some reason, this is the day they all came together at one point – kind of like what we think of as an “atom smasher”. The three points seem to have all fired the same arrow from three different directions. You are probably wondering where this is going. It’s back to “having faith ought to make a change in the way you live”. Notice, that’s not “change things around you”. Rather, it’s what happens in the way you act and respond to people and events – how we “do” life.

I guess that the arrows even came in the TV show “Eli Stone” last night, in the “Live Brave” line. One of the characters said to the prisoner “I guess I should have done something – something more”. Believers (I not sure that fits Eli) ought to be different people – different enough that those who aren’t, see them as different. Kind of like a seed that gets planted – the water and sun make it different than it was. The little seed grows up to be something else, and people (birds and animals too) see it as “different”. It is no longer what it was. Now the question is “am I?”