We began a series yesterday on life lessons from James. We will continue exploring Wisdom today and then get into the others:

• 1: Wisdom – ask God!
• 2: Works – what we do matters!
• 3: Words – what we say matters!
• 4: Wars – “Where do wars and fights come from among you?”
• 5: Waiting – things aren’t all that good now? Wait.

Let’s continue:

If anyone longs to be wise, ask God for wisdom and he will give it! (James 1.5, TPT)

You want wisdom?

• Step One: Ask God!
• Step Two: Fear God!
• Step Three: Subtract!

To gain knowledge, you must add one new thing every day. To gain wisdom, you must subtract one thing every day. – Lao Tzu

(This quote is on the calendar that one of my neighbors created for 2021. It’s also cited by Greg McKeown in Essentialism and espoused by Marie Kondo the tidying guru.)

I love what happens when I get started writing blogs. I thought I wouldn’t even use this one except as a contrast to what James said. But the more I think about it, Subtraction is an important, Biblical concept. For example:

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. (Luke 9.23, 24, ESV)

Sounds like subtraction to me!

If you don’t think subtraction is important, consider the story posted on our NextDoor site recently. A neighbor in a nearby town had a bear break into her car overnight because it was parked in the driveway with one door unlocked.

Among all the comments of sympathy and caution about leaving food in your car or leaving a door unlocked, no one asked the obvious question:

What is so important in your garage that you have to park your Lexus outside?

And that’s a trivial example compared with a large church whose story I read recently. There is unrest in the congregation partly because there are some who don’t think the church is doing enough to attract minority members. The sentence that struck me was something like: “We are trying to reach minorities. In fact, it’s one of our 14 priorities!”

Seriously. By definition, how can you have 14 “first things,” the real definition of “priority”?

Let’s ASK God for the wisdom to know what to subtract.

One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3.13, 14, ESV)