In the Garden of Eden, God told Adam and Eve they could eat
of any tree except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When they
disobeyed and ate their eyes were opened to a world they had not known.
Knowledge can be dangerous; knowledge without wisdom that is.
The more that I study for my upcoming board exams; the more
I find myself stressing out and worrying about the health and wellbeing of my
family and friends. It is a hard thing to know all the ways our bodies can mess
up, all the complications that can happen and all the things that can end a
life. I find myself not wanting my father to run or play sports because he is
the prime age for a heart attack and has a few risks factors. Yet, at the same
time this week I noticed a few things going on in a family member and almost
starting freaking out because the signs I saw could either be several minor
things that happen to be all at the same time, or it could be something serious
needing prompt attention. I sat contemplating the situation but could not live
with myself unless I knew there was no danger.
So what do you do? Do you call out potential though unlikely
danger and freak everyone out around you and very possibly look like a paranoid
hypochondriac medical student who doesn’t know anything, or do you not say
anything and lose sleep praying that everything is okay? And then how do you
live with the decision you have made? How could you live with yourself if your
gut was right and it was serious and you didn’t say anything? See knowledge,
knowledge without wisdom, is very dangerous.
On the flip side, what if I think I know exactly what’s
going on in a patient and confidently move in the direction I am sure is
correct, and I am actually missing something, or maybe I don’t know it all, or
maybe I’m way out in left field? What happens when I am sure a patient is fine
but really they are dying and I don’t catch it? These are things that help
drive my study of medicine, but more than that, they drive my pursuit of
Christ. My knowledge no matter how much I study or how long I practice medicine
will be deficient. I will never be able to perfectly care for every patient of
mine no matter how much I want to. I am inadequate, period. But, thanks be to
God, when I am weak, then I am strong! He is the answer. You see if I trust my
knowledge, I am lacking, but when I abide in Christ and am lead by the Holy
Spirit inside me, then my knowledge becomes wisdom. God made each of us and He
is intimately acquainted with everything going on in our bodies. I have the
most powerful diagnostic tool in my arsenal because the very God who made my
patients is living in me. So when I am debating with myself if something
serious is going on or something small, my first diagnostic test is to get on
myknees.
Then I am not confident in my knowledge but in His guidance,
in His infinite wisdom. This is the kind of physician I want to be. One who
goes to my knees before the lab. It’s not about what I can do with my
knowledge, but what wants to do through me as a tool. Don’t get me wrong I am
still most certainly going to study as much as I can, because it is still my responsibility
to not waste the education God is giving me, but I am not studying for a
degree, or for my patients, or even to be a good physician. I study as an
offering, as worship, and I long for it to be an acceptable offering, a sweet smelling
aroma before my Lord! Proverbs 2:6 says “For the LORD gives wisdom; from His
mouth come knowledge and understanding.” I heard it said once that wisdom is
the application of knowledge. I like that definition because without knowing
how to use knowledge the right way what good is it? According to Proverbs not
only does God give us the understanding and knowledge in the first place, but
He also is the one that shows us how to use it the right way. Proverbs 1:7 tells
us that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; fools despise wisdom
and discipline” He is the answer, in searching for Him, we find everything we
need.
So what about you? God has given us each a unique type of knowledge
and understanding to use for Him. Even Adam and Eve in the garden, when their
eyes where opened to sin and evil, what good could come from that? I mean it almost
seems as though it would’ve been better if they had never sinned and as a human
race we remain perfect as God created us, right? So, maybe ignorance is better
than knowledge? Has it ever occurred to you that without sin and imperfection
we would not be able to know God completely?
Without sin and punishment, how would we know grace or mercy? So then do
we sin just to know more of God’s mercy and grace? Paul deals with this in
chapter 6 of Romans “What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that
grace may multiply? Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in
it?” Basically, if we are truly God’s redeemed, He has so changed our hearts
that we no longer want to sin because we want to glorify Him.
The point to all this madness, God has given us all
knowledge and understanding. The knowledge
of good and evil (your conscience), understanding in a certain field or business,
and for those of us to whom He chooses, the knowledge of Himself (Is 43:10 “You
are my Witnesses, declares the Lord, and my servants whom I have chosen, to
know and believe me and understand that I AM. No god was formed before me, and
there will be none after Me.”). So we
all have knowledge, the question is, will we be wise with the knowledge we have
or will we fall prey to its danger (using it apart from God, in our own
strength).
