21st Century Wisdom

I like reading about productivity, leadership, business and self-help advice. There are slews of blogs, and leadership and management books by fortune 500 CEOs, ex-navy seals, entrepreneurs, and so forth that I’ve learned a lot from. They often have great insights and little tips and tricks that I pick up and incorporate into my own life. Yet whenever I’m reading this stuff I am trying to weigh it, evaluate it, and see it in light of Scripture. And I don’t just means scriptural principles, like is this author promoting something that the Bible says is wrong or something like that, although I do that. But I’m trying to discern the underlying worldview or story the author is consciously or unconsciously pitching: 

• Is a good life you making all your dreams come true? 
• Is success getting to the top no matter the cost? 
• Is a finished to-do list the source of happiness? 
• Does reality exist to serve you, and your job is to bring it into line with sheer force of will and some useful tips?

In the vast majority of cases with this kind of advice, you and your dreams reign supreme. The story that they have bought into is that success is reaching your goals in your way. The good life is whatever you want it to be, truth is whatever is helpful, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The advice is normally in line with “go take what you want and I’ll help you do it.” Now as I already said, I read this stuff. I like it. I’m not bashing it. I just want to read it wisely and as a Christian, not just as Joe Whatshisface who wants to climb the ladder of his company. 

I think part of reading it wisely is classifying it into the right category, which I would call a modern-day wisdom literature. It is a Proverbs or perhaps Ecclesiastes for the 21st century person. We can and, if we are wise, should benefit from the council and advice of others who know what they are talking about. If they have devoted themselves to study leadership or they have started multiple businesses from nothing or went from weighing 300 lbs to competing in ultra-marathons, they have probably learned a great deal along the way and we can learn a great deal from them.

As we pick up these modern proverbs and learn wisdom from these contemporary sages, we need to come back to a central theme in Proverbs, which is that the knowledge of God is foundational to wisdom. It is like the basket that all other wisdom sets in, without the knowledge and fear of God you can’t truly be considered wise. But with the fear of God as your foundation you can gain wisdom from everywhere and you’d be wise to do so.