To be wise is to learn what is important and what won’t matter in a few years. It is to be able to discern between the foolishness of short-term pleasure and long-term satisfaction. Wisdom leads to joy while foolishness leads to heartache and regret.
“Joyful is the person who finds wisdom, the one who gains understanding.”
Proverbs 3:13 (NLT)
Someone may know how to manipulate and get their way in the short term. But what happens to the relationship with the duped victim? Another person may give in to a short-term addiction only to discover it ruins their life. None of us can predict the future. But wisdom can help us shape our future in ways that are predictable and tested through the ages.
Yesterday, I was listening to How Now Shall We Live? by Chuck Colson. In the book, he writes what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they wrote this phrase in the United States Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
United States Declaration of Independence
Colson’s assertion is that this opening phrase was never meant to be a license to hedonistic pleasure. John Stonestreet from the Colson Center also alludes to this and quotes Colson on a July 4, 2019, podcast. “Happiness” was not meant as an excuse to do whatever feels good. Instead, happiness comes from living a virtuous, wise life.
Wisdom causes us to pursue virtue. That pursuit leads to joy. My hope and prayer for everyone are that we take a long-term approach to life and pursue a wise life of virtue that leads to happiness and joy.
