Manhood is a Mindset. J. Colin Trisler
his way into the Grail chamber.
Failing to possess the proper knowledge, especially regarding the character of Christ. As a result, he failed to make a wise decision as to which cup was the true Grail and which ones were deadly imposters.
And in his final act of foolishness, surrendering the authority of his own mind to someone else—that is, letting the beautiful-but-untrustworthy Austrian professor make up his mind for him. This foolishness cost him his life.
Donovan’s pursuit of the Grail proved to be a quest of self-destruction because his decision-making skills were inept (to put it mildly). Indiana Jones, however, won the day by making a series of wise choices, proving yet again why he’s the most industrious swashbuckling hero this side of Han Solo.
Indy’s wise choices included:
Fearing the power of God and respecting the power of the Holy Grail.
Partnering with his wise father, Henry Jones Sr., and utilizing his guidance to succeed in his mission.
Drawing upon his own vast knowledge of facts and employing a strong sense of reason to make informed choices. Examples include: using his father’s instructions to successfully navigate the lethal challenges in the Grail temple, and properly understanding the character of Jesus (“That’s the cup of a carpenter,” Indy said as he grabbed the cup of Christ) to discern the true Grail from the false ones.
Backing up his decisions with action. Indiana Jones as a character is a rare breed of alpha male who is both intelligent and courageous. He’s smart enough to develop a plan and skilled enough to carry it out. He thinks quickly on his feet and never allows opposition stop him from achieving his goals.
Being mentally strong enough to think for himself. Unlike Donovan, Indy didn’t need to rely on someone else to do his thinking for him. In the Grail chamber, he took responsibility for his own mind and made his own decision. And as a result, he chose wisely, as the knight said.
Son, as Indiana Jones proved, reality forces every man to make choices. Every day you will have decisions to make. Real-world decisions that your life depends on. If you want to find true success, a Donovan-esque evasion of this responsibility is out of the question.
The only question is: Day in and day out, will you make good choices or bad choices?
Wise decisions lay the groundwork for a life of meaning and productivity. A life worth living. And while not all bad choices immediately result in your face melting off, every bad choice does plague your life with wasted time and lost opportunities and long-term suffering.
The real world, as it turns out, has a lot more in common with that ancient Grail chamber than we realize. Every day the world is going to present you with a multitude of choices to make. The right choice can lead to abundant life, while any one of the wrong choices can result in certain failure. This overabundance of options has the power to overwhelm your thought process. It can paralyze your mind and make the truth seem ambiguous or even impossible to discover. Thus making the wise choice and finding that one right answer in any given situation can be difficult because there are often multiple answers that look and feel like the right answer.
If such everyday decisions have the potential to impact a man’s entire life, how then is he supposed to choose? How can anyone discern that one grail of truth from among life’s many falsehoods?
Well, as the knight said in the Grail chamber, any man who desires to go forth and lay claim to the gift of life must first take on the responsibility of making wise choices.
The Wisdom Equation
Since wisdom is the dividing line between life and death, let’s take a moment to sharpen our understanding of wisdom as a biblical concept.
The Hebrew notion of wisdom denotes both intellectual aptitude and physical skill.2 According to Old Testament scholars Andrew Hill and John Walton, “wisdom is basically the very practical art of being prudent, sensible, and skillfully insightful so that one might prosper and have good success in life.” Hill and Walton point out that wisdom involves “the ability to discern and achieve order” in the world, in political and social relations, and within one’s own heart. “Wisdom taps the life experience of accumulated years and harnesses that knowledge and understanding for the purpose of safety, long life, right behavior, sound moral character, happiness, material prosperity, and integrity.” They conclude: “Ultimately, wisdom results in the ability to steer through life in a way that wins favor and a good name in the sight of both humanity and God.”3
With this broader biblical context in mind, I will now give you my own refined definition of wisdom. In its most basic sense, wisdom is making knowledgeable, moral life choices and acting on those choices with an effective degree of rationality and skill.
Think of this four-part definition as a mathematical equation:
Knowledge + Morality + Rationality + Skill = Wisdom
Each constant within this equation is valuable in its own right. But a wise man will utilize all four in conjunction to find the correct answers to his everyday problems. To better understand how wisdom works as a life solution, let’s take a closer look at the value of each constant.
Knowledge. A man kickstarts his quest for wisdom by seeking out the cold, hard facts of reality. Knowledge enables a man to make informed decisions. Knowledge, therefore, is the cornerstone of the wisdom equation. After all, you can’t do the right thing if you don’t first know on an intellectual level what the right thing is.
The man who has a handle on the facts is a man who’s well on his way to getting a handle on his life. To be clear: an astronomical IQ score doesn’t make a man wise. But knowledge is a foundational aspect of a wise mind. Take Indiana Jones for example. He had knowledge not only of the Grail itself, but also the cup’s Owner. As a result, when the time came to make a decision, he chose wisely. Donovan, by his own admission, lacked the knowledge he needed and paid for his ignorance with his life.
Son, as these men proved, a working knowledge of the facts kick-starts the thinking process. It leads to both mental and moral clarity, which lay the groundwork for good decision making.
Morality. And make no mistake: Morality and wisdom go hand-in-hand. Knowledge of the facts is not enough. If you want to make good decisions, then you must also be able to discern good from bad in any given situation. If knowledge is the foundation of the wisdom equation, then morality is the spinal cord—it signals your reflexes, coordinates your movements, and stabilizes your behavior. If you disregard morality in your decision-making process, you’ve paralyzed yourself from the get-go. The man who incorporates a strong sense of morality into his thinking, however, acts on noble motivations. He stands firm in his convictions and walks tall in his integrity. His attention to virtue facilitates self-respect and allows him to take genuine pride in his choices.
Morality facilitates wisdom by simplifying your choices. Making tough decisions is never easy. But an absolute sense of morality streamlines the process by dividing your options into two mutually exclusive categories: good or evil. With every decision you make, you’re either accomplishing righteousness or perpetrating wickedness. Like Indy and Donovan, you’re either drinking eternal life from the true cup of Christ, or you’re sipping death from a fatal pretender. There is no morally neutral middle ground. There is only morality and immorality—life and death—and everything you choose to think and say and do falls into one of those two categories.
Son, the world will try to label you a moral zealot if you refuse to operate in subjective shades of gray. But as a wise man, you must cut through the amoral dissonance of this world and see life for what it really is: a series of binary choices. The truth is there is no gray. There is only white or black. Wisdom or wickedness. Truth or lies. Life or death.
Moral subjectivity is an empty concept that fosters sympathy for the devil. So make sure you use absolute definitions of right and wrong to govern your behavior.
Rationality. Knowledge informs your choices. Morality empowers