I've been contrasting knowledge vs. wisdom the last few days and strangely there has been an episode in the life our own community that has made me ponder it more. There is certainly a huge neglect of people converting their knowledge to wisdom. I'm not even sure how that transformation takes place practically or if a human can control how wise he or she becomes because it seems to come through time and experience. But the real dilemma are people who are knowledgable enough to be dangerous. People who have many ideas but lack the discernment or wisdom to know who and when to speak those ideas. Knowledge without wisdom is rarely a good thing.
I remember a time when I was at Pace University in Lower Manhattan listening to a speaker from Princeton University speak to a few campus groups. In the group that I spent time with there was a student who thought he knew EVERYTHING. And to be honest, he was a very intelligent kid. But his whole goal in life was to make sure people knew how smart he was. So instantly when the student stepped into the room about halfway through the lecture, when it was time for question and answer time, he went into a frenzy just trying to find a question or a disagreement that would stump the young man from Princeton (which I'm happy to say he couldn't do) and make himself look as smart as possible. Not only was this extremely disgusting to watch but afterwords there was another kid from the campus group who actually was encouraging this student as to how smart he was. He was clearly knowledgable but he was the furthest thing from wise.
In this reflection on wisdom I have been wondering myself if I am getting wiser. I am certainly getting more knowledgable in all my reading and studies but I do not want that to be a substitute for wisdom and knowing practically how to live and commune with other people. Knowledge can be wisdom's worst enemy at times and when it outweighs wisdom it can be ugly and painful.
2 comments:
Its easy to forget that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, not knowing a bunch of stuff. Good thoughts man
Knowledge becomes wisdom through experience. That is to say... anyone can get knowledge; they print knowledge in books.
When you take that knowledge and apply it to experience, it becomes wisdom.
People that try to stump others to display intelligence (like the one in your post) are simply trying to show that they have acquired knowledge. However, often they also show that they have a lack of wisdom.
Post a Comment