I know a lot of stuff. I’m not bragging, you know a lot of stuff too! We all know a lot of stuff. That doesn’t make us smart and, unless applied correctly, it doesn’t even make us competent. Our brains are full of stuff. The smartest people in the world have additional stuff in comparison to us average people. The rest of us, the less smart and even lesser smart people know stuff. The truly wise people, they know stuff too but there is something more, something different about the stuff they know or at least to the way that stuff is incorporated in their lives.

Life is a classroom.

Every experience is a teacher. I believe most would like to be at the head of their class, to be the smartest person in the room as long as it doesn’t take too much work. The truth is you are the smartest person in the classroom of life because you are the only person in that room. Sure, others are being taught the same subjects and even experiencing the exact same things but only you are you and therefore only you bring your unique point of view formed over your lifetime of learning stuff. You know stuff that even you don’t know you know which means you can simultaneously be the smartest person in the room and the dumbest. Knowing stuff is a collection that can be just as easily stored in a dumpster as it can be stored in a library. It’s just stuff until you come to grips with its value and assign it a purpose in your journey.

We aren’t all brilliant.

The truth is there are many people out there who know book smart stuff and life experience smart stuff and still end up, at best, average. There are others who accumulate book smart stuff and life smart stuff who end up brilliant. There are a select few who are way out in front of us all. The stuff they collect in their brains is formulated in ways that lead to great discoveries and inventions that are turned into stuff that us average people know about but do not understand. We know stuff about stuff we experience but we don’t know stuff about the foundations of that stuff because we aren’t all brilliant but at least we know stuff, lots of stuff.

I have talked a lot about knowing stuff.

You most likely have not learned anything more than you already knew about the stuff you know.  Here you sit or stand or lay down reading a blog with the title “Wisdom The Hard Way” and so far, it’s been about stuff, stuff you already know. What if I told you that the stuff you already know regardless of your level of brilliance could be the foundation to gaining wisdom? What if I told you that you don’t have to learn any stuff to become wise? You would probably say I am wrong and I would agree with you, I am wrong.

We have one important thing to learn.

Most people learn wisdom the hard way. Actually, most people end up living life the hard way because they have not found wisdom. All that stuff you know whether you are average or brilliant, means nothing without wisdom. The world will tell you that wisdom comes from knowing a lot of stuff but I beg to differ. I am willing to put my average intelligence up against the most brilliant people in this world and say wisdom is not what you know, it’s who you know. I can know stuff and therefore make good choices, keep myself out of trouble and maybe even improve my lot in life. I can know God, or at least begin to know God, putting an end to me making good choices, me keeping myself out of trouble and me improving my lot in life.

Wisdom is knowing the stuff God wants us to know.

Believe it or not, it’s a level playing field when it comes to wisdom. People may know more stuff than you but for those who know God, who seek to please God, who live their lives more concerned how the stuff they know is viewed by God rather than others; living their best life the hard way has been replaced by living a life that will be hard in the best of way through the wisdom of God.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33(NIV)