Insight for Today
A Daily Devotional by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

Above-the-sun wisdom equips us to see and to handle life under the sun as it really is. Since Solomon spends most of the latter half of his journal writing about wisdom, perhaps a definition is in order. I’ve thought about what the Scriptures are teaching on wisdom and I’ve come up with this: Wisdom is the God-given ability to see life with rare objectivity and to handle life with rare stability.

When we operate in the sphere of the wisdom of God, we look at life through lenses of perception and respond to it in calm confidence. There’s a remarkable absence of fear. We are not seized with panic. We can either lose our jobs or we can be promoted in our work, and neither will derail us. Why? Because we see it with God-given objectivity. And we handle it in His wisdom.

We can dip into an unexpected valley or soar to the pinnacle of prosperity, and we can cope with both extremes. His wisdom provides us the necessary objectivity and stability. That’s the way life is when it is lived in the palm of His hand. This is not some dreamland fantasy. It is reality. It is the ability to live above the drag of human opinion and horizontal perspective. It is what happens within us when wisdom goes to work.

The more we glean God’s wisdom, the more strength we gain to live with questions and tension. He doesn’t issue rules and regulations for every moment. He provides some overall guidelines and principles, then He allows us to make the decisions. Why? By doing this, the wisdom of God goes to work, and we begin to learn how to walk through life—which is often full of subtle and unseen “land mines.” His wisdom provides the sixth sense we need. It matures us so that we can press on despite unanswered questions.

When I was fresh out of seminary, there weren’t many questions I couldn’t answer. In fact, I occasionally answered questions no one was asking. But I’ve learned in the following decades that I don’t know all the answers. Furthermore, in many cases, it doesn’t matter. Who really cares?

I often think of wisdom as a mental cushion—a buffer that handles the blows. We don’t have to fill in all the blanks or sweep every theological corner absolutely clean. We are not doing sterile surgery; we’re living a life. Wisdom gives us breathing and thinking space.