Wisdom doesn’t end with words.

Yesterday I talked about offering to help the students in my speech classes.

I was being fairly generous, I thought.

And there were several students across the years who took me up on my offer. They stopped me after class, they came to my office, they called me. (If there had been email back then, I’m sure we would have interacted that way.)

There were a couple kinds of students who confused me, however.

One group never came to see me. I knew they were struggling, and I renewed my offer often. But they would have a hard time with a speech, and then have a hard time with the next one. They finished the class with low grades, unwilling to get the help that would have changed things.

The other group did talk with me, I’d make the appropriate suggestions. And then when they gave their speeches, nothing I said was evident. They listened, apparently, but decided that what I said was less useful than what they could learn from a roommate. Or they decided that what I suggested was too hard to implement. And they finished the class with low grades.

When the person giving the grades gives advice, it makes sense to listen.

That’s the other part of what James said about wisdom:

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man,unstable in all he does.

God loves to give direction. He doesn’t scold when we ask. But unless we implement that wisdom, we will make no progress.

5 thoughts on “Wisdom doesn’t end with words.”

Frank Reed
November 16, 2012 at 7:37 am

Thanks, Jon.

Been dealing with a loved one who doesn’t like to take direction or correction. The process has forced me to look at what I model in that person’s life. As I run through the ‘movie’ of our relationship, the scenes from a lifetime together, I hear the soundtrack is Harry Chapin’s “The Cat’s In the Cradle”. Thankfully the Lord gave James the words you shared and those words give me hope and hope is good.

I hope you and your family have a blessed Thanksgiving. You are doing really good work here. Thank you.

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1. Jon Swanson
  November 16, 2012 at 8:36 am
  
  hope is very good, Frank. Thank you.
  
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Joseph Ruiz (@SMSJOE)
November 16, 2012 at 7:55 am

Jon such a powerful illustration. I like to think that I would not be in either of the groups you mentioned, and in academics I probably wouldn’t be. Then there is listening and responding according to James…… Here I often populate both groups. Thanks for the reminder and the illustration I am grateful for God’s generosity, for His endurance and for 300 Words each day.
I agree with Frank, you do a good work here Jon.
Thank you.

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1. Jon Swanson
  November 16, 2012 at 8:36 am
  
  thanks for regularly prompting and encouraging me, Joe.
  
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Becky McCray
November 16, 2012 at 6:15 pm

So you gave two perspectives as the teacher. What’s the view as a student? Why do we hate to ask for help? And why do we not take the advice that we receive? It would be interesting to look into that perspective next.

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