“Is there any of you who is wise and understanding?”  The setting could be Gasworks Park in Seattle.  The audience is consummately diverse.  Business types wearing “casual Friday.”  Students with backpacks.  A scattering of pup tents, grocery carts and their transient residents.

Standing in their midst is a late 20-something man.  The cut of his jib is ordinary.  But his dancing eyes and commanding composure have you waiting for his answer to his question.

A few hands go up, likely in sarcasm, implying, “Okay, smart guy.  I s’pose you have a corner on the mental market.  What’s your point?”

Our moderator makes room for a long, pregnant pause.  Then continues. “You are to prove it by your good life, by your good deeds performed with humility and wisdom.  But if in your heart you are jealous, bitter and selfish, …  such wisdom does not come down from heaven.”

What filters will you trust in 2020 to wisely determine what is real and what isn’t?


“The wisdom from above is pure first of all; it is also peaceful, gentle and friendly; it is full of compassion and produces a harvest of good deeds; it is free from prejudice and hypocrisy.  And goodness is the harvest that is produced from the seeds the peacemakers plant in peace.”  James 3:16-18