Francis Collins, a well-known public scientist and, more importantly, a Christian, insists that the path to wisdom lies along the broken road of our mistakes. On a recent podcast interview, he shared this illustrative parable:
A young student, intent on gaining wisdom, asks everyone he can find, “What is the source of wisdom?”
His elders reply, “Go to the Master on the Mountain. There you will find the secret to wisdom.”
Overjoyed, he hurries off to find the Master on the Mountain.
Finding him, he inquires, “Master, what is the source of wisdom? That’s all I want in life!”
“That’s trivial,” the Master replied. “Wisdom comes from good judgment.”
“Okay, that sounds great,” said the young man. “So, how do I get good judgment?”
“Simple, good judgment comes from experience,” answered the Master.
“Wonderful! How do I get experience?” inquired the young man.
“Oh, that’s easy,” the Master intoned. “You get experience from bad judgment.”
I hope I remember this story the next time I slap my forehead in dismay at some ridiculous error or “bad judgment” call. My even greater hope is that I will remember God’s merciful nature and his longsuffering patience with me:
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” (James 1:5)
When I’ve made a mistake, I don’t need to fear God’s reproach. When I’ve disappointed myself, I should not conclude that I’ve also disappointed God. He’s omniscient. It’s impossible to disappoint Someone who knew about your mistake before you did.
John Piper’s definition of wisdom is three-pronged: “Wisdom is the factual knowledge and the situational insight and the necessary resolve that together succeeds in attaining full and everlasting happiness.” If I am bending all my efforts to get wisdom, if the goal of my life is to be wiser tomorrow than I am today, even my mistakes can serve me well. My mistakes are tuition, the price I will pay for the understanding gained.
If I am bending all my efforts to get wisdom, if the goal of my life is to be wiser tomorrow than I am today, even my mistakes can serve me well. My mistakes are tuition, the price I will pay for the understanding gained.
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When the writer of Proverbs 4:7 said, “Get wisdom,” he had in mind a hope-filled future. This is good news, and it reminds me that the voice of condemnation I hear in my head when I’m disappointed with my performance is not the Holy Spirit!
The practice of folding my mistakes, my poor judgment, my embarrassing foibles into the pursuit of wisdom is a real life illustration of God’s ability to “work all things together for good.” Of course, this assumes that I’m spending time in God’s Word, the one and only place God promises to “make wise the simple.”
- What is your usual response to your mistakes?
- Think back to your most recent poor decision or oversight. Have you overlooked some way in which it has made you wiser?
Holding You in the Light,
See all my Get Wisdom posts for 2025 here!
When the writer of Proverbs 4:7 said Get Wisdom he had in mind a hope-filled future. This is good news, and it reminds me that the voice of condemnation I hear in my head when I’m disappointed with my performance is not the Holy Spirit!
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Great read!
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Thank you for reading!
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Having recently shared James 1:5 with someone, I found this post most interesting 🙂 I especially liked the John Piper quote & have written it down. We truly do need all three in order to grow in wisdom. Praying I do so!
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Praying for the same! Wisdom will be a lifelong pursuit for us.
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“My mistakes are tuition.” INDEED! ‘Love that perspective, Michele. I also take encouragement from Psalm 103:14–“He knows what we are made of, remembering that we are dust” (HCSB). And now an old hymn is coming to mind: “His love has no limit, His grace has no measure . . . “He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again” (He Giveth More Grace). All such encouraging truths– Hallelujah!
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I call it “playing the dust card.”
He knows we’re so fragile, so we come to him with our outsized need and he gives us outsized grace!
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It’s neat we were on somewhat similar wave lengths this week! I’ve often thought that my learning style seems to be doing something wrong at first, and then figuring out how to do it right.
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I hear you! My husband and I often say that we have learned more from mistakes than anything else!
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So true! When I was teaching kindergarten, we always celebrated mistakes because (1) the learning is deeper due to the wisdom gained and (2) making mistakes and growing in confidence allows us to take risks. It was something I often shared with families, too, encouraging them to share a success and a mistake with each other at dinnertime or bedtime. With my own kids we’d talk about the wisdom that comes from above – the James verse is one I’ve gone to many times!
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So much of what we need to know can be boiled down to kindergarten level! (I’m remembering the poster in a classroom where I subbed: Mistakes are the reasons pencils have erasers.)
I hope some young mums will read your comment and follow your suggestions!
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This…”My mistakes are tuition, the price I will pay for the understanding gained.”…is pure gold!!
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Tuition can be expensive, right?
May we not waste a single lesson!
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Exactly!!
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I recently read Francis Collins’ book, “The Road to Wisdom”; he really is quite wise. 🙂 I agree with the parable you quoted that being able to learn from our bad judgment calls is indeed valuable, even though I wish I didn’t have to learn that way. ha. I also echo your hope that we’ll be wiser tomorrow than we are today!
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That book is definitely on my radar—funny how the books multiply when our words raise our awareness on a topic!
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