Spot the Wise

Who are the wise and knowledgeable men in West Virginia? If so, where would we look for them, and how would we know when we found them? Many brilliant men and women are in West Virginia, so let's narrow the search. You may visit a doctor's office and see many diplomas on the wall. The doctor comes in and explains your symptoms and tells you that he is going to have to remove your appendix. He tells you not to worry, though, because the appendix is a hangover from evolution, a vestigial organ that causes us problems. This happened to me once. When the doctor said it, I wanted another doctor. He had knowledge, but no wisdom. Sidenote: in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology, University of Duke scientists made the claim that there is, in fact, a purpose to the appendix, and Darwin was wrong about it, and it's time to update the textbooks. The doctor passed college and medical school, but he learned based on a faulty premise and incomplete data. Never stop learning!

What if I decided that I was going to put all of West Virginia's power lines underground, so the electricity wouldn't go off every time there was a slight westerly breeze (hey, it's my illustration)? Another side note: I lived in North Carolina for five years, went through the remnants of one hurricane, a tornado that touched down a few miles away, and two ice storms, and our electricity only went out twice because the power lines were underground. But the flat lands in eastern North Carolina are different from the hills and mountains in West Virginia, so I put bids out to some engineers to help work out the problems I'm going to have to overcome. One man rises above the others with his ingenious scheme to achieve the impossible and do it quickly. He'll require 1 billion dollars, but he can do it. During the negotiations, I discovered he had lied to me several times and sabotaged other engineers in their presentations. I have a brilliant man, but not a wise man. Do I want to trust my fortune and goal to a brilliant man, but also an immoral man?

James 5:13 says, "Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom." James tells us one way we can determine if a person has good knowledge and wisdom when talking about things that matter. Look at their life. When a person has wisdom, their life will reflect it because they have wisdom. The decisions they make and the words they speak come from the wisdom they have. When people can apply the knowledge of the Scripture to their life in walking with Christ, their wisdom will produce fruit. That's one reason why there are so many scandals among false preachers. They have intellect and can gather a crowd but have no heavenly wisdom, and their life shows it.