We place value on things such as beauty, strength, power and riches, but there is something more valuable. I want wisdom more than silver, gold, and rubies.
I couldn’t believe it.
I was doing some research for this post and found that there is a website where you can measure how ‘beautiful’ you are.
Here is some text.
Am I pretty? Am I ugly?
Why am I ugly? Or not pretty enough?
Online test for face beauty analysis. [You can also do a full body analysis!]
Analyze your face in 3 minutes.
Rate my face 1-100. How beautiful am I?
Are you pretty? Ask us with confidentiality.
Upload photo or use webcam.
Privacy Statement
Please do not start if you have low self-esteem or confidence issues.
Your information and uploaded photos are not saved or shared.
Results are based on complex mathematical calculations performed
by a blind computer beauty calculator and could be incorrect.
After the shock, I had to laugh at the caveats and warnings.
‘Low self-esteem or confidence issues’ and ‘complex mathematical calculations performed by a blind computer beauty calculator and could be incorrect.’
It’s ok.
I didn’t take the test and I hope you don’t google all the above to find out whether you’re ‘pretty’ or ‘beautiful’ or ‘muscular’ or ‘strong’ or any other thing you might want to compare yourself with.
The question is, do I have value?
Everyone I have ever listened to has both beauty and strength.
Online spam collecting tests like this leave out who you really are, and that’s what I am deeply interested in.
Not to be nosey or anything weird, but so that I can see inner value empowered and enhanced.
The Silver, Gold, and Rubies
I suppose I am a bit like a miner seeking after the hidden and valuable.
Favourite TV show is Goldrush. This reality TV show takes us to the wild country of the Yukon in Canada. The quest is on for small fragments of gold.
They move mountains of dirt to find a few flakes. Multiple obstacles have to be overcome. It takes a rugged persistence to keep going. Many walk away. But at the end of each episode, they weigh out the flakes and fragments.
Celebration breaks out at the success.
But I’m not mining for gold. I’m prospecting for wisdom and understanding.
It’s truly stunning when it leaps out of the soul you’re listening to.
The writer of Proverbs puts it this way.
Blessed are those who find wisdom,
those who gain understanding,
for she is more profitable than silver
and yields better returns than gold.
She is more precious than rubies;
nothing you desire can compare with her.
Long life is in her right hand;
in her left hand are riches and honor.
Her ways are pleasant ways,
and all her paths are peace.
She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her;
those who hold her fast will be blessed. Proverbs 3:13-18
You’re blessed when you meet Lady Wisdom,
when you make friends with Madame Insight.
She’s worth far more than money in the bank;
her friendship is better than a big salary.
Her value exceeds all the trappings of wealth;
nothing you could wish for holds a candle to her.
With one hand she gives long life,
with the other she confers recognition.
Her manner is beautiful,
her life wonderfully complete.
She’s the very Tree of Life to those who embrace her.
Hold her tight—and be blessed! Proverbs 3:13-18
I want wisdom
I recently sat with someone who had finished a major academic qualification. Three and half years of hard work, struggle, persistence and sacrifice.
I asked them what they had learned. I wasn’t interested in the results of their detailed research, something of which I would have a zero understanding of.
What I was intently interested in was what they had learned by going through this rigorous struggle. I was hunting for wisdom and insight.
Then they shared their gold, silver, and rubies. They had learned about stepping outside of their comfort zone, to accept failures as a path to successes, to listen to others, and many other beautiful gemstones they will carry for the rest of their lives.
Deep in my soul I was more excited by what they had learned than those miners in the Yukon searching for gold.
That’s what I am hungry for. That beauty and wonder that bursts out and transforms us all.
Panning for Wisdom Gold, Silver and Rubies
Now this takes time and focus.
It’s washing the small dust like gold fragments off the dirt and rocks.
Slow and gentle, it takes a kind of unhurried practice and quiet. There is a rhythm and a rhyme to the swish between water and rock.
But off the rocks, pebbles and fine silt comes the gold.
Here is Parker Schnabel from Goldrush showing how to pan for gold.
What have you learned?
Where is the wisdom under the wash, the mud, and the mountains of muck?
It’s there.
I know it is.
It’s what you build your life off.
Quotes to consider
- There is gold, and abundance of costly stones;
but the lips informed by knowledge are a precious jewel. Proverbs 20:15 - What I focus on gets me. Focus on the negatives/ challenges will always take me down. Focus on the positive/ good things will always give me hope.
- Wisdom is not just following good advice. Wisdom is something much more personal. In fact, it’s a person. David Benner
- Our great problem is the problem of trafficking in unlived truth. We try to communicate what we’ve never experienced in our own life. Dwight L. Moody
- Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through some stages of instability
— and that it may take a very long time. Teilhard de Chardin
Questions to answer
- What is your greatest quest in life?
- Who do you know that has gold, silver and rubies buried within them but they would downplay and even argue with you they don’t? Why do they do that?
- What grabs your attention about yourself first? The dirt or the gold, silver and rubies? It’s not pride to have a healthy acceptance of your qualities.
Formation exercise
- Listen to someone this week with a gentle curiosity for their gold, silver and rubies. Thank them for these gems.
Further reading
Barry Pearman
Photo by Matt Seymour on Unsplash
