Boiling It Down

Sometimes you get a lightning-strike insight.  An idea comes "out of the blue;" about something you're not even consciously thinking about; whole and complete and right (the Biblical term for which is "perfect").

Those are the kinds of moments that probably gave rise to the word "inspiration:" an idea is literally "in-spirited" to our minds.  That's probably still as good an explanation of the phenomenon as anything cognitive science has come up with.

But more often  we have to meditate on a matter, concentrate to think it through, if we want to come to the wisdom of it.  I think of that process as "boiling down" a matter to get its essence.  

Every question comes before us with its own details, antecedents, examples, implications and repercussions: some of which are always irrelevant, contradictory, or misleading.  We can't deal rightly with any question until we think clearly about its core reality.

But that kind of meditation is necessary, in whatever mode an idea comes.  Even "lightning-strike" inspirations need to be analyzed, and tested.  There are more spirits at work, in the world and in human hearts, than just the Holy Spirit.

That's where our input makes a difference.  We don't come to wisdom by our knowledgeability of the details, or our skill in logic.  God is the sole source of wisdom: whatever other personal cleverness we cobble together is "worldly wisdom."

We make the difference in which we will get, by what we choose to accept.  The bench-mark we set ourselves makes all the difference.  Right understanding is righteous: wisdom is a moral quantity.  My takeaway is that the Spirit, in Person and in scripture, is the only infallible Standard by which righteousness and wisdom can be accurately measured.

My experience is also that the Spirit's wisdom is the only thing which ultimately works in the real world God created.  It's no good trying to play hockey with a tennis-racket.

We choose the standard by which we will think, and by which we measure our thoughts.  That is our deliberate part.  But it doesn't feel like something extraneous imposed on the process.  It feels like a natural fit.  I consider the Spirit, as Inspiration and Standard, is how God intends, and crafts, every human being's mind to work...if they will.

"But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him."  (James 1:5)