THE BURDEN OF WISDOM

The role of wisdom in ensuring a productive life for either an individual or organization cannot be over emphasized. This is due to the numerous sterling qualities that wisdom introduces into the life of any individual. As such Wisdom is one of the most sought after qualities by individuals or organizations. The bible also supports this quest for Wisdom by saying “WISDOM IS ‘THE PRINCIPAL THING: Ironically wisdom appears to be as elusive as it is important for productive living. I believe this is largely because people in search of Wisdom largely do not understand what they are looking for. WHAT THEN IS WISDOM: The book of proverbs clearly tells us that Wisdom is a person. This implies that to possess Wisdom, one has to court him. The word “court” here is used to mean that one has to create an environment in your spirit that Wisdom can dwell in. To court wisdom successfully, one needs to understand the nature of wisdom so you can adequately prepare yourself for this great guest. At this juncture, it is important to say that Wisdom is prepared to dwell with you permanently if he is comfortable in you. When wisdom is in operation, there is creativity, innovation, easy problem solving etc. However, Wisdom seeks to confer a burden on his host. This desire of Wisdom is so important that Wisdom dwells with a person/organization to the extent to which they are ready/able bear his burden. Wisdom eludes many because they either are not aware of its burden or are not prepared to bear it. So I don’t loose your attention, I would go ahead to state that the burden of this great guest is RESPONSIBILITY. The word responsibility implies that it is your duty to bring about a certain outcome. This tells us that you would receive a reward it that outcome is actualized and a punishment it is not achieved. This thought hit me like a thunder bolt. “The more Wisdom you acquire in a certain area of life, the greater your responsibility becomes to inspire, actualize positive changes in that area” Meditating further I realized that the foundation of all development across human history based on the acceptance of this truth. King Solomon understood this when he asked God for Wisdom, Knowledge and understanding. Plato understood it when he opined that “It the wise refuse to rule (accept this responsibility), then they risk the ruler ship of fools. To underscore the kind of disaster it is when fools are in position of authority, the bible says “woe unto the city whose king is a child". Interestingly, this responsibility is not limited to people in position of authority. Anyone with Wisdom in a certain area can contribute to positive outcomes in that area. Leaders with Wisdom go all out to seek the Wisdom embedded in their followers because they know that no man has the monopoly of Wisdom and two good heads are better them one. Followers who understand and accept this responsibility are actively involved in the actualization of team’s vision. They do no not need to be cajoled, induced and/or forced to contribute their quota. In this situation, things move on smoothly and the team vision is actualized effortlessly. I believe that the above paragraph totally explains the reason Nigeria is in the comatose state that she is as a nation. The people endowed with the necessary wisdom to effect national development have abandoned the responsibility to do so. The result is that our nation is struggling with basic things after more than 50years of independence. Power now rests with people who are either not interested in national development or lack the capacity to effect change. This class of people over the years has ground Nigeria to a halt. Worse still, the people who are blessed with wisdom required how torn around to blame the leadership solely to the problems facing our great nation. We forget that this country is our country as such we have a duty to contribute towards its development. It’s our sole responsibility. Moreover the kind of country we pass on to the next generation is largely dependent on whether or not we accept responsibility for its revitalization. In conclusion, I want to ask in what area are you blessed with wisdom. What is that thing that you can do much easily then others? And lastly what one thing can you do to improve yourself, your organization and your nation. You need to answer this question and accept responsibility for that action if you are to live a productive and fulfilling life. YOU WOULD BE REMEMBERED FOR WHAT YOU DID NOT FOR WHAT YOU COULD DO.