The Way Ministries

Dr. Carlos Quijada: Hello everybody and welcome to a new episode of Walking the Way with Dr. Carlos Quijada. In this podcast, we discuss various topics related to everyday life and we learn what the Bible says about those. I want to ask you a very important question: Have you ever met someone incredibly intelligent and yet they make foolish decisions?

The consequences can be disastrous, and we must also ask ourselves, what is missing? What causes people that might have brilliant minds but yet they make decisions that are not the right ones? In today's episode, we're going to explore why intelligence alone is not enough and why true wisdom is something entirely different.

Intelligence is not wisdom, and I know that a lot of viewers will agree with that. I'm going to share three reasons why one thing is not the other. First of all, intelligence is the ability to process information. As we talked about in the last episode, information is an accumulation of facts, and wisdom, on the other hand, is the right application of these facts and truths.

Proverbs 9:10 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." That tells us that wisdom is not merely intellectual; it is moral and spiritual. Now, why do intelligent people, smart people, make foolish decisions? We're going to see three reasons. The number one reason that we find is pride. When people trust their intellect more than truth, that can lead to an over-self-confidence that translates as pride.

One example we find in the Bible is King Solomon. I'm going to share a little bit about him, and I know some people might be familiar with this story. Perhaps he might be the greatest example in scripture about someone who was intelligent and was also wise, but intelligence without sustained wisdom can lead to foolish decisions. The Bible tells us that Solomon had unparalleled wisdom.

He was very known around the Middle East. Kings traveled long distances just to hear him speak. His insights were legendary. Yet, the same man who wrote books like the Proverbs, which we have been citing in this podcast, the one who is attributed the writings of the Song of Solomon—he wrote poems and a lot of wise sayings that are relevant for us today—he made choices eventually that undermined his own life.

Some of these choices included that he intermarried with women. First of all, he married a lot of women—not a wise decision right there. More than one is more than enough. God made one man for one woman, and one woman for one man. But he intermarried with not just a lot of women, but women that were from foreign countries that worshipped gods that were not the God of Israel.

A lot of this was for political reasons. As a result, his heart turned away from God, and he compromised his convictions. So we see that a man that once walked in wisdom, he stopped doing so, which is why it's important not just to have the knowledge but to also be consistent in the way we walk in wisdom.

Another reason why smart people make foolish decisions can be emotional blind spots. Intelligence doesn't protect us from insecurity, doesn't protect us from desires that are not in alignment with God's principles and designs for humankind. It doesn't protect us from fear, and definitely doesn't protect us from ego.

We must understand that in a lot of situations, emotions can override logic. For example, people really ruin their lives because they lack information; they ruin their lives because they ignore wisdom. I've worked with individuals that are madly in love and it's obvious that it's not a healthy relationship. Some of these people see the signs, they see the red flags, and they can even have information about the other person that clearly shows that this relationship is not going to work.

But what happens? The passion is so strong that it just overrides the logic. A lot of people feel that they live in some fantasy or in some movie or soap opera, and they make foolish decisions when it comes to the people that they relate to. That right there is an example of how we need to implement wisdom above the emotions that we may have for one another.

Those emotional blind spots are not guaranteed to be covered when we have intelligence alone. Another reason why smart people can make foolish decisions is the lack of moral foundation. Without truth as a foundation, intelligence can justify anything. There's people that know a lot of stuff; they have a lot of book knowledge, and yet their moral compass is skewed.

We can look into the book of Ecclesiastes where people do all kinds of things under the sun. Some of these things are not right things, even if they have a lot of knowledge. I've had friends that are incredibly smart individuals, and yet they walk away from the truth and they lean towards behaviors and attitudes that are not moral.

Some of you might know of people that are famous, that are well-known because of their contributions to humankind, and yet they fall into moral shame. That shows us that intelligence without a moral grounding can become a rationalization of what is wrong. But when we have wisdom, it helps us stay grounded. It helps us align our moral compass so that we have the knowledge but we use the knowledge in a way that is life-giving.

Now let's talk about wisdom and how does it look like? I want you to pay much attention to this because this is very important. Wisdom, according to what we see in scripture, first of all, shows in the form of humility. People that are wise remain teachable. It doesn't matter how old you are. It doesn't matter how many college degrees you might have.

I have a friend that says that some people have more college degrees than a thermometer. Having the humility to recognize that you can always learn something from anyone—something that is useful, something that is going to help you grow—that is a sign of wisdom. The Bible talks about Moses. He was a man that was raised in the Egyptian kingdom.

He probably was exposed to a lot of the knowledge that Egyptians had; they were very advanced for the time. This man, through the process, through the crucibles of life, he learned humility to the point that the Bible says that there was no man as humble as Moses. These were things that were not learned in the scrolls, they were not learned in whatever schools he attended; they were learned in those processes that helped him become more and more humble through his relationship with God as well.

A second characteristic of wisdom is reverence for God. We've read in the previous episodes that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord in Proverbs 1:7. This is a key principle of wisdom. Wisdom begins with aligning ourselves with God's truth. It doesn't matter how well-known we are or how famous we may be, we maintain that attitude that the only one who is good, the only one who is worthy of praise and worship is God and that everything that we have belongs to him.

We honor him with our treasures, with our talents, with our time. That is what reverence for God looks like and it's a key component of wisdom. Another thing to look at when we see wisdom is long-term vision. Wise people think about the consequences. Like that example that I was sharing earlier, sometimes people override logic and wisdom because of their emotions towards somebody and they don't think about the long-term relationships.

I met this young lady a while back that fell in love with this man that was involved in illegal stuff. His track record was not good. I believe in redemption, I believe that people can change, but we see a person that had no desire to change and yet this young woman was so in love and her belief was, "Well, me as a Christian, I can convert him."

A lot of people are like, "I can convert that person, I can turn that person into a good person, into someone who does the right things." When we think wisely, we recognize that we can't change anyone with our own efforts; only God can change and the person must be willing to change. That's the voice of pride right there—"I can do that, I can change that person, I can make them the way that person should be."

But when we are wise, we're humble, we have reverence to God. God is the one who can change, but also we have a long-term vision of what we believe our life should look like down the road. What is the design? What is the purpose? We need to understand what our core values are as a person. What are those things that are non-negotiable?

I pray that if you're someone that is not sure about these things—like who are you? When people ask you who are you, do you respond by the things that you do or the roles that you have? In order for us to know our true identity, we need to understand what is our vision? What is our why? Why are we here? What is our purpose? What are those things that are non-negotiable? Our core values.

Wisdom asks not only "Is this possible?" but it will ask, "Where will this lead?" Paul wrote to the Corinthians that, "I'm allowed to do all things, but not everything is beneficial." We have the freedom to choose, we have the freedom to go right or left, but at the end there's going to be consequences and we need to think about that.

What is the long-term consequence of the road that we're in and have the determination to walk on a path that is going to lead us to a place that will end up higher, will end up wiser, and that we will end up closer to the one who created us. So before we make any decisions in life, we must ask ourselves these questions: Is this aligned with truth?

Many times we make decisions based on lies, based on things that we've been told but we haven't verified. It's important to be diligent. We hear a lot, "We only have one life." Yes, we only have one opportunity to live on this Earth. If anybody's watching who believes, "Well, but there's going to be multiple lives," I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but that is based on philosophies that are not verifiable.

All we know is that what we have right here, right now, this is the reality that we're dealing with at the moment. So as we make decisions, we need to ask ourselves, is it aligned with truth? Another question we must ask ourselves: Am I ignoring wise counsel? Proverbs says that in the multitude of counselors, there's safety and that's how we win those battles.

If we don't seek counsel, we are running the risk of making decisions based on our own emotions. This again takes humility to make ourselves vulnerable enough to ask people for counsel. And of course, not just anybody, but make sure that you have people in your life that will speak wisdom. We have discussed how wisdom looks like—people that reflect these characteristics.

It could be a parent, it could be a friend, maybe a neighbor, a coworker, somebody who has walked the walk and that has really proven him or herself as someone that can give wise counsel. Once you ask for it, don't ignore it. Take it into account. Examine it. Don't just go to one person if possible; go to two or three people.

The more people you ask counsel, the better it is going to be for you to make a wise decision. Not just the opinions of the people—it's not about depending on people's opinion, it's about seeking wise counsel. We human beings have the Bible as the guide. Whatever you might believe in this moment, we've been blessed with wise counsel that are found in the pages of the Bible that can change your life for the good.

Another question we must ask, and this is a very practical question: What will this decision look like in 10 years? If you go down that path, where will you be in 10 years? Write it down. Write the possible pros, the possible cons, and just envision these items on a balance. Which is heavier? A lot of times there's going to be some collateral consequence on decisions that we make.

Not always a decision will be perfect, but there are times that we need to make choices that are going to yield more benefits than consequences that are unwanted. It's kind of like when you take a medication. All medications have some kind of side effect. If the side effects outweigh the benefits of the medication, then is it even a treatment of choice?

If the side effects don't outweigh the benefits of the medication, then that may be the treatment of choice. Sometimes it's best to start with things that will yield 100% benefit and no negative side effects, but there are occasions where that is not possible. I'm not just talking about medications, I'm talking about decisions in general that you need to make.

Be diligent in writing things down. Writing, "Okay, what are the pros and cons? How will this look like five, 10 years down the road?" That is a way for us to be strategic about decisions that we make. A lot of people live with consequences that they just ruin their whole lives. You don't have to live with more consequences than what you're already dealing with right now.

Today is a new day and you can start—you can have a new beginning and start walking a way that is better than what you have walked so far. So as we near the end of this episode, I want you to think: What is the biggest difference between intelligence and wisdom? Look at people's lives—those that you know that are known as extremely intelligent, but yet have made destructive decisions.

What were the characteristics? This will help you see all these things that I have discussed with you today. As always, in the comment section, you can place your comments and also I want to encourage you if you have any questions or if you want to share testimonials, please feel free to do so. I would love to start discussions about intelligence versus wisdom.

What are the differences? What are some anecdotes? Maybe you have made decisions that in the long run you have seen the consequences. The great thing about it is that if you are breathing today, there is hope for you to use those consequences as teaching moments and start walking differently from now on.

History is full of brilliant people, and they have built remarkable things, but they have destroyed their own lives in the process. Yet there are people that may not have a lot of book knowledge, but yet they have lived lives that are tremendously impactful for the good in a lot of people. Which one do you want to be?

Ideally, it's good to have knowledge, it's good to have intelligence and know a lot of things, but it's even better to apply them with truth, with wisdom, and with focus on the vision of what God has in store for you. Thank you so much for watching this episode of Walking the Way with Dr. Carlos Quijada. I want to invite you to stay tuned for more episodes of this podcast.

I hope that this conversation has helped you today. Please share this video with your loved ones, people that are seeking for wisdom or that are seeking for truth. Until next time, keep pursuing truth and keep walking the way. God bless you.