Wisdom

Dare I speak about wisdom? I heard a quote by St. Francis de Sales that was along the lines of, prayer is dangerous, because praying about virtue and holiness can lead the person praying to believe they possess those things.

Well, let me preface by letting everyone know I do not have the gift of wisdom. Yet.

But! I learned all about it yesterday, and I want to share an interesting little nugget I gleaned.

Any Christian, faithful or lukewarm, has most likely heard the phrase "fear of God" (or perhaps this is a grand assumption for me to be making, but I need to rest on this assumption to make myself believe what I am about to say has some meaning). I was always a bit wary of fearing the Lord.

I had someone ask me once, how fair is it to only want to go to heaven because you don't want to go to hell? My first response is, well, of course that's not so great, we should want to go to heaven because we have a positive desire to go to heaven, not simply an aversion for hell. Then, they pull out the old "fear of God" quote and I am left babbling and really being a terrible witness.

So what does fear of the Lord mean? The way it was so wonderfully explained to me, is to think of someone you respect, like REALLY respect. Take Blessed Mother Teresa for example. You have so much respect for this woman, that if you were ever in her presence, you would be so afraid to act like a fool, or disrespect her in any way. You would be so careful with every movement, every word. That is what is meant by fear of God.

If I feel this strongly about Blessed Mother Teresa, how much more should I feel this way about God? And yet, it is a struggle.

How does fearing God tie into wisdom? It's one of the biblical characteristics of a wise person (among other things, like listening and learning, and not cutting babies in half).

For now, I will try to be wise and prudent, by studying for an economics homework. Hopefully homework does not fall prey to the same danger as prayer in the eyes of St. Francis de Sales.