Episode 405: I’m Talkin…Wise

I’m Talkin’, episode 405 for January 18, 2026.

This is Joel from the I’m Talkin’ microcast, where I share my thoughts on a topic that has piqued my interest this past week.

This week, we’re talking wise.

Instead of looking up a definition for wise, I thought I would look at synonyms because that often provides more insight into what the word might mean.

And the three that I saw that I really liked, one was prudent, one was insightful, and one was sage.

I think that all wraps up in the word wise quite nicely.

And I think in the world today, we desire to be known as someone who is wise.

I think we actually seek people out who we think are wise people to help direct our lives, to help us move forward in a proper path.

And therein lies the challenge for those of us who call ourselves Christians.

Today’s word comes from Proverbs chapter 13, verse 16, that says, wise people think before they act.

Fools don’t, and even brag about their foolishness.

That’s such a great verse.

The reality of the verse is, it is in the Bible, it is God’s word, but it’s not necessarily saying that only Christians can be wise.

It is saying, here is how wise people look.

Here is what you want to seek out.

Here is what foolish people do.

They actually bask in their own foolishness, but wise people think before they act.

It doesn’t mean that we have to only look to the Christian world to look for people who are wise.

There are businessmen who have been obviously wise in their choices and what they do.

There are sports figures.

There are all kinds of people in our world who may or may not be Christians who demonstrate the act of being wise.

They actually think before they act, and that’s kind of the idea of being wise.

And we can learn from all kinds of people.

We can look at how they live.

We can look at what they do, and we can recognize that they are wise in the area of which they have expertise.

The other thing that we can recognize is how to flee the opposite, how to stay away from those who are foolish, who could lead us in a path of destruction.

But in the end of the day for Christians, our foundation needs to be in Jesus Christ.

It doesn’t mean we can’t learn to be wise from the world in which we live, but we need to balance that against what God’s word says.

So the wise in different areas of our lives may not be wise in following Jesus Christ.

They may end up living a life that is against what we believe, but it doesn’t mean we can’t learn from them.

And I think that’s the greatness of God’s word.

He says, wise people think before they act, and tells us in that sentence, look at them, follow them, base it on the foundation of Jesus Christ.

Until next week, this is Joel from the I’m Talking microcast.