Wisdom via Fantasy Land

Today in my devotional Promises to Keep: Daily Devotions for Men Seeking Integrity for 07 February, I found this little gem by David De Witt. I quoting somewhat at length:

"Wisdom is the skill for living life. The Hebrew word is the same as the word for a skill to make a chair out of a piece of wood or a tent out of animal skins. Wisdom is obtained from observing the regularities of life or learning from others who have already learned those skills by living longer. Since true wisdom also comes from God, it is looking at life's regularity from God's point of view as revealed in the Bible (Psalm 119:100). If we lack wisdom, we should ask God for it (James 1:5). But the wisdom God gives us will make sense and not contradict what He has alreayd given before. To learn wisdom is to learn the regular patterns of the way God does things...
A person will not choose the irregular and the regular at the same time. If a guy continually looks for irregular interventions of God into his life via signs, gifts, experiences, or messages, he will not tend to seek wisdom. If he seeks the regular patterns of life as God prescribes them (wisdom), he won't constantly expect God to be interrputing those regular patterns (though He may).
Guys seeking mystical signs remain boys. Guys seeking God's regular patterns (wisdom) become men. Some boys buy lottery tickets for the same reason other boys are mystics. They want to ignore the realities of life while expecting an intervention. I'm told that most people believe that there is a very good chance that they will win the lottery and very little chance that they will get into an automobile accident. Why do they believe that? Because they are boys. Boys live in chaos, chance, mysticism, and a fantasy world that does not exist. And it keeps them from the real world, which does exist. Men face the real world and learn it's patterns. That's wisdom." (Emphases mine).

In reading this, I get one of those feelings, that "Huh. I've had this book for 13 years. How did I miss that?" (And the answer comes back, "Because you really didn't want to see it, ya dope!")

Little hard on yourself, you say? Not at all. Read my post from yesterday on my visit with Fantasy. And that was yesterday.

The thing that leaps out most at me is the concept that boys seek mystical signs, and as a result live in a world of chaos, chance, mysticism, and a fantasy world that does not exist. Have I run my life like that? More often that I care to admit, absolutely! My decision making process has very often been based on the theory that I will wait until I get a sign, a feeling, something from God indicating this was what I was supposed to do (in 0ne case, it was a cell phone), when in reality it probably already reflected the decision I had made internally and I was just looking for some kind of cover.

Chaos and chance? Harder to pin down, but probably true as well. Chaos in my life is probably defined by the number of things I have picked up, started, and put down, rather than sticking with some things and mastering them. Chance? I would want to say no, but if I look inside at some of the decisions I made, there was always an element of chance invovled - the chance I was going to hit it big on stock options, for example.

And Fantasy World? I think he is more completely talking about a world where we believe that it operates according to how we think it should operate, rather than how it does; however, it makes sense to me to believe that in the context, he is also discussing the propensity of some to completely dwell in worlds that simply do not exist (aspiring athletes that will never make the Olympics but insist that they will, roleplayers, videogamers, and MMOG folks probably all fall into this category), and so rather than grapple with the world as it is, they create worlds more to their liking.

I've been guilty of this - faced with the reality of life as it is, I create worlds of fantasy, of adventure, where my life is exciting and I am in command. The problem (and the problem for all of this) is that that fanatsies always end: the job or the relationship or the chore, the thing that must be done, is still there, and the fantasy, while emotionally fulfilling, has moved me no closer to the task of living in the world; in fact, it can cause me to make decisions as if the fantasy world was in effect and reality was an optional choice.

But then again, I'm guilty of all this: seeking signs instead of wisdom, living in chaos and chance and fantasy. Honestly, based on that, it's a miracle my life has gotten as far as it has.

Looks like it is time to start looking for some patterns instead of searching the sky for flocks of birds flying in the shape of giant arrows...