Without Wisdom, No Real Success Can Occur By Abimbola Abatta

Indeed, the Bible is a breathing resource for those who seek to be blessed with words and messages of wisdom. 

I paused and laughed out real loud while I read Proverbs 27:22:

“Crush a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, yet his folly will not depart from him.”

I pondered on this rich verse that seemed funny, and I proceeded to check the meaning of the word “folly”. 

The second definition hit me really hard: “Thoughtless action resulting in tragic consequence.”

Foolishness comes to play in our lives when we fail to think our actions through. Many of us are currently bearing the brunt of certain thoughtless journeys we embarked on in the past. 

Until folly leaves a foolish man, his foolish actions will always seem wise in his eyes. 

The day you understand that your thoughtless actions may end in futility, you cease to become a fool. So, no matter how hard one tries to caution a foolish man against certain activities until his sense of reasoning is tapped, he may remain oblivious and indifferent to your help.

A Yoruba adage says, “Ajá tó bá ma sonù, kò ní gbo fèrè ode.” It means a dog that is doomed to be lost will be deaf to the hunter’s whistle. 

However, I want to believe that if such a dog does not tread the path of destruction in the first place, it won't be doomed to such a fate. 

Similarly, folly can leave a foolish man if he seeks the antidote to his foolishness. And what is the antidote for folly? Wisdom! 

Without wisdom, fools will remain in the realm of foolishness. And without knowledge, ignorance will seem like bliss. Those who succeed in life must have been cured of foolishness because success does not come through thoughtless actions. 

A man that considers God in all his ways, for instance, is wise. And he is on the path of success because it takes wisdom to include God in one's affairs. 

Those who learn from their mistakes to avoid falling twice into the same pits have heeded the voice of wisdom. Being a wise man doesn't always exempt you from failure, but you exercise wisdom when you garner lessons from your pain. This further stresses the fact that no real success occurs without wisdom.

Wisdom means you are ready to deal with your weaknesses. It means you are willing to work on yourself. It means you are prepared to toil while you still have strength. It means you will choose the right values over the wrong ones. 

Before my pen takes a nap, ponder on these words: “Wisdom is knowledge that is guided by understanding; we have to have the wisdom and the knowledge to understand why certain things happen in our lives and trust that God will lead us over any obstacles that come in our way.” Anonymous

© Abimbola Abatta