Friday, August 10, 2007



Norah ready for 'back to school' with her backpack, a way-too-big hat and her new crocs...

Secret Wisdom

The other day I was at one of my favorite restaurants which operates out of a little trailer and has been bringing the most addictive Chinese food to the good citizens of Oak Ridge for the past umpteen years. I had just ordered my sweet and sour chicken and fried wontons and gone into the next building to scout out a place to sit when I heard one of the future presidential candidates being interviewed on some political opinion show. The candidate was being asked all about mortgage prices for individual families with blemished credit histories and predatory brokers and their responsibilities in the midst of weak home prices and rising interest rates.

As I wielded my chopsticks amid a flurry of fried rice, it struck me just how much junk the president has to know. And not just know, but be an expert on and have a plan for. It seems like the president has to juggle so much information that simply getting a status report on every single sector of responsibility would take all day long… I guess being the leader of the free world takes a lot of wisdom about a lot of things. If I were president I would probably take the whole first day to find out whether or not I could hit a golf ball and have it roll around the entire perimeter of the oval office without stopping…

I don’t know anything about finances in the private sector or what to do with Pakistan. I have no idea how to find the money we need to provide everyone in this country with awesome health care and I really don’t have a solution for the energy crisis. I don’t know what I’d do if I found out Area 51 was real and we really do have guys like Jason Bourne. When it comes down to the wisdom it takes to lead in this world, I know beans. But, I do have wisdom… and it’s secret wisdom.

In 1 Corinthians 2:6-7, Paul said, “We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.”

The message of the Gospel of God’s grace is like God’s secret that He’s telling anyone who wants to know… it’s like a private club that everyone’s invited to where you find out that money, power, fame and success don’t mean anything and that love is everything… where you find out that we’re all a bunch of needy, messed up failures that God loves and is making into a kingdom of conquering warriors… where you find out that you don’t have to do anything or know anything to be totally accepted by the One who made your heart for the sweet freedom of knowing His.


This week one of my friends lost her mom to cancer. And while the people of power in this world struggled, clawed and debated their way toward position and influence by trying to know the most and talk the loudest, I was in a quiet room with six 18 and 19 year-old guys who got down on their faces to pray for their friend in her loss. It was their idea and it may have just been the quietest, sweetest and strongest gathering of wisdom that took place that day.

4 comments:

The Hull Munchkins said...

Norah...my sweet little angel girl, looking so darling in her big pink hat. Those crocks are too much. She and Abby match!

Christy Younger said...

Sweet post, Babe.
I love that wisdom of our sweet, young friends.

Cody Blair said...

we've been thinking about you guys. great words today lee

Anonymous said...

i love little norah rose

Hannah

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