When one who has hurt us gets hurt, foolish and scoffing voices cheer us on. “Hover over your fallen enemy! Fist-thump your chest and boot-heal theirs! Your sentences are saws. Go slow with the cutting!” Naïve wisdom shudders. “No, no, we have no enemies” it urges us. “All is well!”

The wise say “no” to both ways. But Why?

Over the years our living room has been graced with numerous people who told us they had received answers—usually complete with proof texts—that in the end answered nothing. Some of them didn’t need to hear anything from us; what they yearned for was that we listen to them and in doing so affirm the significance of their existence, their struggle, their pain.

Many of them had read the books of experts but needed to hear the poetry of prophets and the fiction of the Redeemer.

Expertise helps us but if we are really to flourish we will need wisdom.