What might the difference between "knowledge" and "wisdom" be? We can sense that a difference in each meaning exists, but it's hard to define.
Knowledge is probably the easier of the two to define. Knowledge equals "know the right answer/knowing what to do." Knowledge is extremely valuable, as knowledge informs us how to live life in the most valuable way possible. But knowledge on it's own is mechanical, not organic. On it's own, knowledge is just a set of right/wrong answers to problems that need to be fixed. Knowledge tells us what is right, but WISDOM shows us how to use Knowledge in a way that elevates the community around us. Knowledge lives in our heads. Wisdom lives in our hearts, and Wisdom seeks to better the hearts of those around us.
Recently I went on a trip to Colorado that involved taking 20 high school students on a series of adventurous, Colorado-ey activities. We went white water rafting, rock climbing, and capped of the week with a three day backpacking trip through the San Isabel National Forest. One of the most enjoyable parts of the backpacking trip was the time we were able to spend with the paid guides of Noah's Ark Rafting Co. Their love and service to us--an inexperienced group of Missouri flatlanders--was a perfect example to me of the difference between Knowledge and Wisdom.
The guides were obviously WAY more knowledgeable about, well, pretty much everything that had to do with backpacking through the Colorado backcountry. Our guides showed us how to pack our backpacks. They introduced us to the "Leave No Trace" principles of preserving the extraordinarily beautiful creation we were so privileged to be hiking into. They helped us set camp and even went so far to prepare ALL of our meals while on trail.
At any point of our three days with our guides, they could have very easily made us feel dumb. We really were so unaware of all the planning and energy and effort that they put into keeping us safe and making our experience enjoyable. What effort and restraint they must have exerted to not make us feel stupid when we barraged them, like a three year old, with questions that started with "Why...? What...? How...? Are you sure...?" Our inexperience and lack of knowledge--even our physical unpreparedness that slowed down the progress we could make each day--might have seemed like a constant draining force on our guides overall attitudes. But if we were draining, they did not show it. Which is why I left feeling that our guides were not just Knowledgeable, but also Wise.
A Know-It-All is someone you come away from feeling stupid. Someone with Wisdom, however, will leave you with a feeling of being loved.
God created all of us with special types of knowledge--things that we get/see/know in ways that others do not. If we want to be more than just knowledgeable, if we want to reach what we think of as being wise, then we must use that knowledge not to make ourselves feel smart, but to make others feel loved.
God gives us the knowledge that we have not to keep and hoard to increase our own feelings of self-importance and superiority. God gives us the knowledge that we have to raise the level of love in ourselves and the community that we live, work and play with.
Wisdom is taking what we know and using it to make others' lives better and more full of love.
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