The Fear That Opens the Eye

My brethren, hearken to this: a man may fill his house with books and still walk in darkness. He may sit at the feet of the learned and rise no wiser than when he sat down. For wisdom is not gathered like coin, nor inherited like land. It is given — given from above, to the heart that knows it cannot find its own way.

Consider what the young king asked when he might have asked for anything. He did not reach for long life, nor for the ruin of his enemies. He stretched out his hand for an understanding heart — that he might discern between good and bad, that he might judge rightly what he could not judge alone. "Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?" (1 Kings 3:9). There is the beginning of wisdom: knowing you do not have it.