I had never seen him before he sat down at my station for advising and registration.  A young man slightly unkempt, as one who perhaps had just gotten out of bed and left home without combing his hair.  Never mind that it was already late afternoon.  I noted that this must be his first semester of college, as a young woman I took to be his sister was there for support.  She quickly responded to all my questions, and, sensing his embarrassment or perhaps frustration, I began to direct the questions solely toward him.  His speech was slow, and I realized her intent was to protect him. 

In those few minutes I spent with him, I imagined that this student was one of those rare and special people, who was a genius at math and science but who struggled with some of the most mundane tasks in life.  My heart reached out to him as we pieced together his schedule, which was not easy at such a late hour, many classes having already filled and closed.  We struggled for quite a while to find one more elective for him.  He would call out a course from the catalog  list, and I would check the computer listing and say “It’s closed.” 

“What about Public Speaking?”, he asked. 

It was open.  His sister immediately jumped back into the conversation.  “Are you sure you want to take that?” she asked him, and I could sense her protection and love for him.  “Isn’t that why you take a class,” he responded in his slow deliberate speech, “to learn to do something you’re not good at?”  

Ah, the meekness of wisdom!  He understood something that few ever grasp.  He was willing to attempt something that was outside his talents and experience, even if it meant he probably would not be at the top of the class, and his brand of wisdom might not be recognized in that environment.  I smiled inside and breathed a silent prayer for this young man that his classmates and teachers would not devour him or break his spirit, and that this new endeavor would be a positive one for his life.

A question that hovers here for each of us:  Do I seek for others to think me wise, or do I humbly seek to learn? 

 Let no one deceive himself; If any one among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.  For the wisdom of the world is folly with God.  (1 Cor. 3:18-19a)

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes.  (Isa. 5:21a)

Then I said to myself, “What befalls the fool will befall me also; why then have I been so very wise?”  And I said to myself that this also is vanity.  For of the wise man as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten.  (Eccl. 2:15-16a)

Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes?  There is more hope for a fool than for him.  (Prov. 26:12)

Be not wise in your own eyes.  (Prov. 3:7a)

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.  (Matt. 5:5)