Wisdom

Experience instructs, but it gives no relief,
For knowledge brings sorrow, and wisdom is grief,

Experience instructs, but it gives no relief,
For knowledge brings sorrow, and wisdom is grief,
And yet by the preacher of wisdom we’re told
To seek it as silver and prize it as gold.

It’s better to hear a rebuke from the wise
Than comfort receive from the flatterer’s lies;
And sorrow is better than laughter and song,
Which rarely turn sinners away from what’s wrong.

It’s better like Job to be tested and tried,
Refined in the furnace, as gold purified,
Than left to yourself, an undisciplined child,
A bastard, uncared for, allowed to be wild.

The chastening’s not pleasant, but better by far
Than easy indulgence and ignorance are.
By sorrow and pain is our wisdom attained
And painful itself is the wisdom thus gained.

For that which is crooked cannot be made straight,
The number of that which is wanting is great,
And eyes that can see all the evil that’s done
Are vexed by the vanity under the sun.

Our Savior knew sorrow, and so will His friends
But also the sweetness that sorrow attends.
The more we are like Him, the more we will feel
The sorrow of wisdom and wisdom’s appeal.

May 21, 2009

Nita Brainard