I’m fascinated by wisdom – what it is, how to acquire and accumulate it, maintain and use it, share it. I find it amazing that wisdom is something God freely and liberally offers to all people without strings attached, and that so few people take advantage of the offer.

When it comes to advice, Good adds virtue; bad, adds vice.

It seems to me that a primary medium for conveying wisdom is word of mouth. In this, there’s an abundance of advice available for acquisition and accumulation. To wit:

• Chuck Lawless, a respected Christian leader with 4 decades of perspective, gives his top 11 leadership tips.
• Paul Sohn, a Christian millennial leadership coach, offers this collection of best advice from the Leadership Development Consortium Conference.

There’s plenty more out there…just an Internet search query away.

Likewise, there’s an ever-flowing font of marketplace wisdom, too. A sampling:

• Top leaders share their best received wisdom for Forbes.
• 20 leadership experts share their own insights for Inc.
• Fast Company offers an ongoing segment that dispenses workplace wisdom.

What is/would be really interesting is to juxtapose the two collections to see where there’s agreement and disparity…and to develop wisdom from it. But that’s for another day. For now, though….

As a hunter/gather of wisdom, here is some of the best advice I’ve received on my journey so far:

• People matter most. If God so loved them, how dare you not?
• Be biblical. God cares what we do, how we do it, and why we do it.
• Obey the Spirit promptly.
• You are never more like Christ than when you are being nailed to a cross by people you love.
• Forgive as you have been forgiven.
• Put Christ first. There’s a bigger gap between first and second and second and last.
• Love is a discipline. Be disciplined in love.
• Love is my commitment to your needs and best interests, no matter what it costs me.
• Be loving and kind, all the time.
• Seek to understand before you expect to be understood.
• Do not strive to be spectacular; strive to be faithful.
• God never obligates himself to bless anything you do from your own resources or initiative.
• You aren’t God. Be glad about that. God, though, is God. Be even more glad about that!
• If you want to be happy, take your attention off yourself, put it upon God and serve others.

And to close, consider this:

• Do not like good advice so much that you frame it and hang it on a wall rather than putting it to good use.

What’s the best advice you’ve received?