Wisdom for when you need a second wind
by Tanya Riches
Sophia is the Greek word for Wisdom, and Propel Sophia seeks out the voices of truly wise women and asks them to share worked examples of how they express faith in daily life. Pull up a chair at Sophia’s table, won’t you? There’s plenty of space. Learn more here.
I don’t know if you’re like me, but now that I’m in my thirties, I reflect on the passion I had for Jesus in my youth with fondness. The whole world was ahead of me as I planned my future - every bright and shiny promise in my Bible highlighted in yellow pen and emphasized with a big exclamation point.
Many of my friends don’t have these kinds of memories. Instead, they spent their youth out partying; making sometimes regretful choices (and having some made for them); with people they no longer admire. These parts of their story, they revisit with sadness. But the day they decided to follow Jesus, everything finally burst into color.
I was lucky to have had an amazing youth group, with Christine Caine as one of the teachers who stirred our hearts to pursue the things of God. God was doing something particular in the global church, and it was a special time. I particularly remember walking to the front of the room to receive prayer, a moment that has stood out in my mind ever since.
The events of my life are marked out in these “altar call” moments - just like in the Bible, where the Israelites made monuments to remember their promises to God (Joshua 4). With many others I prayed, “LORD! SEND ME!” and, “I WILL GO!”.
Although these prayers were God preparing and pointing us towards the world and to mission, it’s sometimes hard to keep the passion alive when faced with the everyday grind of emails, and the task of putting faith into action in the marketplace, in the shopping center, and in the university. Still, I think that’s exactly what God is asking us to do right now.
At times, my 30s can seem like an entirely different universe than my youth group days. Whether we look back on our past fondly or reluctantly, it’s A WHOLE NEW WORLD here and now. The questions are more complex; life is so much more messy. How can we find a clear direction when things seem to be spinning?
This is what I was feeling when I turned to the Bible in my quiet time the other day. Before rushing off on my commute, God used the deep journey and reflections of the writer of Ecclesiastes (most widely thought to be King Solomon) to speak to my heart.
Some Christians criticise the author of Ecclesiastes, but this book forms a part of the Bible often called the wisdom literature. Re-reading the Bible deeply with new eyes can help us see what God is saying to us about our world today.
In Ecclesiastes, Solomon bluntly names how messy and complicated life can be. He reflects upon his own life of work, relationships, and partying. He cynically notes how people make good and evil choices, but often they don’t get what they deserve in reward or punishment. He realizes that a flurry of activities and businesses can fill our days and yet they can remain “empty” or “meaningless,” as the Hebrew word hebel is translated.
Reading these first chapters, I breathed a sigh of relief: He gets it: this feeling of holy discontent. Scripture has something to say to me in this over-full, over-stimulated season of life.
Reading on, Solomon reflects on how timing matters for each of our actions across our lives (Ecclesiastes 3). I was reminded that not everything needs to be done right now. There’s a season for everything.
In the next chapter, Ecclesiastes tackles oppression, trauma, and grief; naming these realities. He decides “two is better than one”, and “even better than two is three” (Ecc 4:9, 12). He reminds himself (and us!) that community and support are invaluable as we process life’s losses and loneliness.
Then, he grapples with evil he sees about him, but also asks questions of himself and how he has gained his wealth. It is here that Solomon reminds himself that God is sovereign. How we work (or the integrity of our life on earth) does matter. God is attentive to what is going on: he watches our actions and listens to our words (Ecc 5:9), and he will hold us all accountable for our life choices (Ecc 3:17).
Most importantly, living life God’s way brings “gladness of heart” (Ecc 3:20).
As I reflected upon Solomon’s conclusion, it spoke directly to me: what he needed—and what I need too—is wisdom. “Wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good thing and benefits those who see the sun,” he writes (Ecc 7:11.)
I breathed a sigh of relief that morning. In Ecclesiastes, the teacher doesn’t discount the tricky things that he’s seen. He doesn’t hide from what he finds troubling or unexplainable. The reality is, life is complex. It isn’t always simple.
Solomon’s conclusion speaks to me: “When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the labor that is done on earth… then I saw all that God has done.” As I also turn my gaze back to my life with this refreshed perspective, I’m seeing all God has done with new eyes.
Thankfully James 1:5 promises that God gives wisdom generously, without finding fault. So, in the mundane moments before the commute, when the children are screaming and there are dissatisfied family members, in all the complexity and in the messiness of life….
I’m counting on wisdom to be my second wind to run the race ahead.
Tanya Riches
Dr. Tanya Riches is a scholar, and worship songwriter from Sydney Australia. She won the David Hubbard Award for her PhD, completed at Fuller Theological Seminary. She is now a Senior Lecturer at Hillsong College where she oversees the Masters degrees. In addition, she leads the research pillar at the Centre for Disability Studies, the University of Sydney, where her work amplifies the voices of people with intellectual disabilities and their families to industry and government.
