Truth (or knowledge) must become active to be wise. It must be made subservient to a will and be applied toward good in order to count as wisdom. We are all foolish at times, but we normally want to be wise and usually think that we are. However, it often takes a third-party’s perspective to really know if we are being wise.

“…When it comes to using wise thinking to make better decisions, studies point to the importance of perspective. In particular, viewing situations from a third-person (fly-on-the-wall) rather than an ego-centric point of view. This is because examining events from a first-person vantage point can limit our attention to the focal features of situations, making us more close-minded and defensive. On the other hand, self-distancing through a third-person perspective helps us relate events to a broader context. Perhaps this is why we are more likely to demonstrate greater wisdom when reflecting on others’ lives rather than our own. And perhaps this is why we use our wisdom least when we need it most.” - 3/1/18 article in Psychology Today (God's wisdom shining though a secular source)

When I take action or make a decision, I usually believe I am acting wisely. It is only later, with the benefit of hindsight and payment of regret, that I might see the foolishness that was hidden within. I don’t want to play the part of a fool, so what do I do? I need a good perspective - one that virtually reaches into the future to bring the benefit of hindsight to bear before I act.

Do I make a lot of choices in my life? The more autonomy I have in my life, the more likely I am to experience regret. More decisions mean more regret because regret is that feeling of sadness that comes after experiencing the less-than-ideal results of an earlier decision. Research also shows that I most regret actions TAKEN when I look back over the last few days, but more likely to regret actions NOT TAKEN if I consider the last few years.

Everyone makes poor choices at times. But when my regret becomes negative, repetitive, or self-focused rumination, it can physically harm me and lead to depression. However, regret can also give me valuable feedback to make sense of the world and avoid future negative behaviors (this is called repentance). Given this, I must apply generous grace to the past by forgiving myself. But I also need to apply wisdom to the future by learning from my past mistakes and accepting the never-changing truth and wisdom of scripture.

Death, poverty and many forms of destruction can be linked to truly foolish behavior. However, a fear of appearing foolish can lead to opportunities lost, progress forgone, and even evil sown.

Feeling foolish while pursuing what is right and good is a very small price to pay versus plunging into actual foolishness. However, even these plunges can humble me and help build an immunity to further foolishness in the future. They can motivate me to decide in advance what I will do in a similar future circumstance.

I desperately need wisdom, based on truth, to know whether to plunge ahead or hold back. If I mistake what is true with what is false, no advance planning will help - I will fall. So I must first search out what is really true and then use it toward my good and the good of others.

Living for something higher than myself is key. A driving purpose, well-honed principles, or knowing God all helps to keep life in proper perspective. An unguided perspective will be misshaped by fatigue, selfishness, or a short-sighted, yet compelling, argument for which I fall.

Eve lost sight of a good God and focused on her own hunger and self-interest. Adam’s perspective was bent to please Eve versus God. They both lost sight of their Creator God who desperately wanted them to enjoy all He had given them and avoid the one thing that would ruin them - to live for themselves.

God combines omniscience (perfect knowledge) with complete goodness to be all-wise in all things. Even when I have the truth before me and start acting with the best of intentions, I can still easily fall short.

Although the cross was considered to be foolish by those with worldly wisdom, it was in God’s wisdom that it became His solution for reconciling man to Himself.

Highly respect and value God - above all else - to establish a firm foundation for wise living. Test this wisdom with others who I know to have wisdom and be open to reason.
Ask: What do I value more than a relationship with God, and why?

God, You alone are fully wise, and You have graciously shared Your wisdom through Your word, the Bible. Help me to desire Your knowledge, understanding and wisdom in order to live a life which is pleasing to You.

Both! The largest initial advancements in science, leading to technology that has vastly improved our lives, was made when men were seeking to understand God and His creation. But religion, corrupted by power-starved clergy, did oppose some scientific development. But the true gospel of Christ has always been compatible with, and often a catalyst for, healthy scientific development.

“It was only during the nineteenth century that science began to have any practical applications… Before then, the only reason to study science was curiosity or religious piety. Christians believed that God created the universe and ordained the laws of nature. To study the natural world was to admire the work of God….It was faith that led Copernicus to reject the ugly Ptolemaic universe; that drove Johannes Kepler to discover the constitution of the solar system; and that convinced James Clerk Maxwell he could reduce electromagnetism to a set of equations so elegant they take the breathe away…. It was only during the ‘enlightenment’ that the idea took root that Christianity had been a serious impediment to science. Voltaire and his fellow philosophies opposed the Catholic Church because of its close association with France’s absolute monarchy. Accusing clerics of holding back scientific development was a safe way to make a political point.” - Thoughts from The Genesis of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution by James Hannam

Increasing knowledge creates wisdom only if it is applied for good. Knowledge is neutral facts and figures that become good or bad depending upon how it is used. It thus needs something wise to guide its development and use.

Rocket engineer Wernher von Braun, the public face and key architect of the American space program, earlier built rockets for Hitler. More than 3,000 missiles of his design against the Allies killed ~5,000 people, while as many as 20,000 concentration camp prisoners died assembling the weapons. During the 1930s, the German medical establishment was admired as a world leader in innovative public health and medical research. They correctly identified the dangers of tobacco, asbestos, DDT, alcohol and lumps in the breast. They developed the first high-powered electron microscope. But to what end? Hitler spoke of Germany as a body and himself as the doctor who wanted to make the nation healthy by eliminating the diseased parts - beginning with forced sterilization and ending, of course, with six million deaths in concentration camps.

"Be Thou my wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father and I, Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one. - 2nd verse"
Note: True wisdom is tied to a relationship with God.