The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. (Psalm 111:10)
You’ve seen him, no doubt. He’s on the practice green with a bushel of golf balls and some kind of gizmo designed to enhance putting skills—doing the work, spending the time.
During the match, they look at the putts from all four sides. They fix ball marks that might interfere. They brush away debris and bugs. Nobody in my golf demographic gets down into a full Camilo Villegas “Spider-Man” stance to view the path to the hole as the ball sees it, but I’m sure some would if they could. They don’t because, in my golf demographic, they’d need assistance getting back up.
But clearly, they’re the smart ones. I mean those folks who practice putting and who process a lot of data points prior to attempting any putt. Valuable, those putts. After all, a six-inch putt is worth as much as a 250-yard drive, right? My pre-putt thought process tends to be more like, “I think this breaks right a bit and is slightly downhill.”
Smart people, wise people—you run into them now and then.
I watched an interesting YouTube interview recently with Charles Murray—one of those smart people. He was a Harvard graduate and made a name for himself some years ago by authoring a very controversial book called The Bell Curve.
In the interview, he discussed his personal migration to orthodox Christianity from the agnosticism in which he grew up. He described the process of coming to believe that theism explains reality better than the materialistic empiricism from which he came and that has suffused our institutions of higher learning.
At least it did so back when he was a recipient of that learning. For myself—someone who grew up in the church and who hasn’t ever seriously questioned the veracity of Christianity—it’s always encouraging to hear stories like Murray’s.
About the same time that I saw that interview, I was reading a book I’d found at the library entitled Witness to Belief by Russell J. Levenson. It is a collection of interviews with prominent current cultural figures describing why they have come to faith in God and why they retain this faith, often despite being in professions steeped in the agnostic zeitgeist.
All these interviewees are well-known and quite accomplished in their various fields. Francis Collins, head of the ambitious and mind-blowing Human Genome Project, and actor Denzel Washington are two examples. The book is filled with others.
Perhaps it shouldn’t, but it does generally encourage me to hear from accomplished people who have shifted their theological gears in this manner. It’s not a new phenomenon. Augustine of Hippo and C. S. Lewis come readily to mind. There are plenty of others.
As a rule, people whom others have identified as exhibiting wisdom or intelligence are often worth listening to.
Maybe I should heed the example of folks who take their putting more seriously.
Maybe?
Prayer: Lord, please grant us wisdom—your wisdom.