‘The way of life winds upward for the wise.’ Proverbs 15:24
I have lived long enough to see the results of a wise life and the fruit of a foolish life.
A wise life continues to wind up higher and higher and higher, whereas a fool’s life is symbolised by the winding down effects that take them lower and lower and lower.
A fool lives for the satisfaction of the moment irrespective of the damage caused and with no thought to the ramifications that will be unveiled in the future.
Wisdom is comfortable with the fact that a good life, like a good wine, takes years to ferment – thus producing the finest vintage.
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From the time I was a small child I have read the scriptures, and yet I am amazed, as I continue to dig into this ancient treasure, that I am ever discovering new things.
Take tonight for example…
While reading Matthew 14 I stumbled across the numbers 5, 2, 5,000 and 12. This was signified by 5 loaves, 2 fish, 5,000 men plus women and children, and then when they were all fed there were 12 baskets of leftover fragments filled.
But then I read Matthew 15 and discovered the numbers 7, 3(few), 4,000 and 7. This represented 7 loaves, 3 fish, 4,000 men plus women and children, and then when they were all fed 7 full baskets of leftover fragments remained.
Now you might respond to this observation with, ‘So what?’
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Last weekend I hung out with two dead guys. In fact as I consider a lot of my ’solitude’ life – I tend to spend a large amount of my time within the company of the deceased. Now you may say, ‘How can you do that? How can you have a conversation with the dead?’
Well it all started years ago, when things were a lot tougher in my life than they are now. I would take myself to the local university in the town that I lived and I would search for jewels. Now where do you find jewels in a library you may ask? Good question. Jewels to me, in the context of the library, are books that add value to my life. And that is where I met a whole group of dead guys. In fact, I had to search into the depths of the basement area of the university’s library before I dug up some incredible treasure that is dear to my heart even until this day.
So there I was in the deepest, darkest parts of the library, all alone, poring over multiple volumes of some of the original productions of a man called Ralph Waldo Emerson. Here was a man, even though I didn’t fully understand his language, that seemed to have a kindred spirit. Reading his material was like an entwining of our hearts and minds. I felt his words to the very depths of my being and from time to time I actually understood them. It was like I was drinking liquid gold. Now the books were so fragile that the pages were beginning to perish, and so ever so carefully I underlined key words and phrases with a lead pencil so that I could later type up those notes into a complete volume for further study.
Now you need to understand that I wasn’t a fan of everything he wrote, but what I liked, I really, really liked with an incredible passion. So from that day on I have made it my practice to hang around dead guys just like Emerson.
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Authenticity and transparency are to be the hallmarks of emerging and successful leadership this century.
No longer will leaders be able to hide behind the veil of unaccountability and untouchability.
For in this new world, men and women will gravitate towards leaders who are in the dark as they are in the light. Transparent, vulnerable and approachable.
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In order for us to water others we must first be filled to overflowing. For it is the one who spends time drinking from the wells of wisdom on a continual basis who will irrigate the fields that are planted with people’s lives.
For me personally, it is those writers who have bled upon the page who cut me the deepest. And it is those who have drawn from deeper wells who quench my greatest thirst.
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