The Wisdom to Know What To Do Next
Wisdom: The Need to Know
You need wisdom to know what to do next. -Pastor Wayne Mancari
“There are many seasons in life.” Pastor Wayne Mancari explained to me. “There are seasons to rest, seasons to work, and seasons to harvest. And you need wisdom to know which to do next.”
As the Executive Pastor of Church Planting and Leadership at Cathedral of Faith in San Jose, California, Pastor Wayne knows all about the varying seasons of life, ministry, building, waiting, and resting.
Wayne spends most of his time meeting with church planters - guiding them, resourcing them, and praying for them. So meeting him and hearing from his life story was a true blessing for me in the season that life currently finds me in.
Although I am all too familiar with the seasons of life and ministry, God spoke a gentle reminder to me through Wayne - Justin, you need My wisdom to know what to do next.
And God is so right! I mean, He always is, but here’s an important paradigm shift:
We all know our problem as people isn’t not knowing what to do next - I usually don’t have any trouble coming up with lists and lists of things to do - but where we all struggle is in knowing what not to do next. Especially, here in the Silicon Valley.
Activity does not always mean productivity. Sometimes less is more, you multiply by subtracting, and you go fast by going slow.
So what’s the solution?
To pray.
We need to pray to God for the wisdom to know what to do next.
Virtue: The Need to Do
Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it. -David Starr Jordan
Believe it or not, there’s something more important than obtaining wisdom.
And that’s using wisdom.
Knowledge isn’t power until it is put into practice. Faith isn’t effective until it is exercised. And wisdom is just knowing… without the act of doing.
God’s works don’t make our works unnecessary.
So, God, I pray -
Please grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference. (The Serenity Prayer.)
