Archibald Mc Leish once said, “there is only one thing more painful than learning from experience and that is not learning from experience.”
Experience can be a great teacher. However, it is possible to have had 20 years of experience and it is also possible to have had one year of experience 20 times. Aging is guaranteed, but gaining wisdom is not.
Solomon tells us, “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.” Wisdom is the right use of our understanding, and while growing older is usually automatic, the getting of wisdom is not. We have more experiences the longer we live. We must learn from these experiences so that we can grow in wisdom.
We grow older each day, and for each of us, we have never been this old before. As we age, we may be weaker physically, rich in life experiences, and curious about what should be our priorities in the time we have remaining. We can become less efficient in using our knowledge and experience to do things that really matter as we get older. Many retired folks become so busy doing this or that little task all day long that they marvel how they ever found the time to work at their jobs. It is good to be busy, but busy doing what? Since we have acquired all that experience over the years, we need to ask ourselves, what has it helped prepare us to do?
We need to realize that all we know and understand about any subject dies with us, for as David said, contemplating the certainty of death, “While I live will I praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God.”
David’s solution to the problem of what to do in the years we have left is to praise the Lord, and not put our trust in humans, because when we die, all our thoughts and wisdom and knowledge perish. We need to spend our time being happy with the knowledge that God is our help and our hope is in the glorious promise He has made to the faithful. We need to serve Him faithfully for the rest of our life.
Stephen Covey has observed, “How different our lives are when we really know what is deeply important to us, and keeping that picture in mind, we manage ourselves each day to be and to do what really matters most.” It takes wisdom to recognize what is important in life and then to use our time wisely doing those things that really matter.
What matters the most to us? How we spend our time, especially those moments called “free time,” is a good indication. If we spend that time watching TV or playing cards or polishing the car, what are we saying about our priorities? Are we using our knowledge and experience to help serve the Lord? It is not enough just to take care of ourselves and learn from our experiences. The next step is to put to work our understanding and our wisdom by spending our time serving the Lord, for the day is soon coming when we will not be able to use what we have accumulated in knowledge to help others.
None of us knows how much more time we have left. Our Lord said, “I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day: the night comet, when no man can work.” This was true of the Lord and it is also true for us. So let us make the best possible use of the time we have each day in thinking and doing things that are important. Let us be mindful of the needs of others and how they can benefit from the experience and wisdom that we have accumulated during our lifetime. Let us work the works of our Heavenly Father while it is day, for the time is coming when we won’t be able to work. With David we say, “While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.”
May we be found so doing when Jesus comes. This is our prayer.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One