Pause for Thought

Nathan Cracknell, ReBorne Community Church

This month we will have a new Prime Minister. After a process of several months, the successful candidate persuaded the majority of the Conservative party that their policies were the wisest and most beneficial for everyone.

It has been a fascinating leadership contest to observe. Especially as the final two candidates had such opposing strategies regarding the economy (at least to begin with). Seeing two highly educated politicians proposing such different approaches to solve the same problem raised a pertinent question: how do we evaluate the wisest course of action?

This is a question which reaches beyond politics. We all have to make decisions that will impact our own future and the lives of those around us. Whilst most of us will probably never have the responsibility for the fiscal state of a nation, affecting the lives of millions of people, the decisions that we do have might at times carry a significant weight. For these weighty decisions in particular, we value wisdom.

Wisdom is an interesting attribute; most people believe they possess it. We seem to have a natural tendency to believe that we know better. If you’re not sure this is true, think about the number of conversations you have witnessed, or even been a part of, that stated how something should have been done. There will inevitably be times where this is true. However, there are times where wisdom can be elusive for us and choosing the wisest option can be challenging.

To help us, we might turn to any of the countless sources offering wisdom. The Bible puts itself forward as one of these sources and has plenty to say on the subject of wisdom. An entire section of the Old Testament is categorised as Wisdom Literature. One of the books in this section, Proverbs, personifies wisdom as a woman calling out in the street, imploring people to listen to her.

Elsewhere, in one of the Psalms, the psalmist makes a strange request regarding wisdom. They ask that they might realise the brevity of life, so that they might grow in wisdom. At first, the request and the desired result might seem unconnected. However, upon closer inspection, the psalmist appears to be on to something.

As our new Prime Minister will discover, as their predecessor also discovered, they have a limited amount of time in which to act; and they can never be sure how much time they will have, and when it will be over. Once it is over, it will no doubt feel as though it were over too soon. Perhaps they will even feel as though they would have acted differently, had they realised their time would come to an end when it did. I think this is the idea the psalmist is getting at.

It can be tempting to believe that we have more time than we do. Realising we have limited time is a key factor in taking the wisest course of action.

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