I remember talking to two or three people about some of the unfortunate situations I had found myself in and their responses went along the lines of “you are not street smart.” They did not say it explicitly, but their faces, their tones and their euphemistic words gave it away. One person even went as far as blaming my parents, saying I was spoilt. Most of it was innocently said, but there was also some judgement. All of it hurt. Were they saying I was not smart enough to navigate life circumstances and relationships with people?
After taking mental notes, knowing I was never going to speak to some of these people on things of this sort ever again, I pondered on these things for the longest time. Was I only book smart? Did I lack the smarts to operate in the real world? I thought about my childhood, the things I had been exposed to, the things I had not been exposed to. Had I been too shielded? Would I ever have the smarts required to thrive in the real world? How could I become smart so I can navigate life successfully – still being kind-hearted but discerning enough to guard my heart against being trampled on; still ambitious, but forging ahead without the need to pull other people down, while at the same time protecting myself from other people who may seek to pull me down. It is a dog-eat-dog world out there and most people are not nice… many people are not kind.
Trust me, it was crazy – there was a period where I went through bad experience after bad experience, over and over with different sets of people, it seemed everywhere I went, people saw my face and decided I was a candidate for ripping off. An easy target.
At some point during my graduate job, I found myself in a perpetually draining situation that was testing me in a very similar way to some of my previous experiences. It seemed someone I was in close proximity to was trying to take advantage or at least somewhat cheat me while at the same time making me look bad. Thankfully, this time, I caught on. I was not clueless; I had better awareness of the situation and could be proactive but I was still worried that I did not have the smarts to successfully handle or navigate the situation like had been previously insinuated. I turned to my bible to infuse strength and wisdom into my soul – I would read scriptures on boldness and wisdom over myself as I made the journey from my house to the train station every morning.
Daniel chapter 1 verses 17-19 was one of my morning readings. I meditated on it every morning and sometimes listened to the audio reading on the Bible App. One morning, I decided to listen to The Message Translation; something caught my eye. The Message version presents Daniel 1:17-19 as follows:
God gave these four young men knowledge and skill in both books and life. In addition, Daniel was gifted in understanding all sorts of visions and dreams. At the end of the time set by the king for their training, the head of the royal staff brought them in to Nebuchadnezzar. When the king interviewed them, he found them far superior to all the other young men. None were a match for Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
Woahhh!!! What had I just listened to? I was stopped in my tracks. I replayed verse 17 again:
God gave these four young men knowledge and skill in both books and life.
The Bible acknowledges that there is wisdom from books and there is wisdom from life, and God gave the four Hebrew boys both! That got me excited. I could have both. God can give me both!
Interestingly, the bible talks about knowledge and skill from books and life not from books and street. I thought about this and decided I needed to create a proper framework:
Book Smart: To gain knowledge and skills from books.
Life Smart: To be able to navigate life situations successfully, wherever you find yourself.
Street Smart: To gain knowledge and skills from life experiences (usually from tough or harsh circumstances).
We will all at one point or the other (at the very least) experience difficult life seasons. The goal is to grow through life; to learn through these circumstances, how to be better… how to do better. How to make even these not-so-great circumstances work for us.
According to Lemnoy Snicket, all the secrets in the world are contained in books. One of the best ways to get through life with more ease than most is to learn through reading other people’s life experiences. With books, we have access to people’s whole lives within pages. We can read through centuries and decades past – we learn from other people’s mistakes as well as their successes. We also learn that we are not alone in our struggles. We learn that someone somewhere in the past or present has gone through similar circumstances to us. “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the world, but then you read.” – James Baldwin
While books provide us with the comfort of knowing we are not alone in our circumstances, provide us with empathy for situations within contexts far removed from ours and wisdom to prepare for the future, the knowledge we gain may remain in our heads and consciousness until we can apply them to actual life circumstances. It is very easy to be cocooned in one’s life bubble, reading copious books and not having any need to exercise any of that knowledge. But life will often present its challenges, especially as we grow up and push to achieve destiny. There is often a gap between knowledge gained from books and real-life applications. The goal is to successfully bridge this gap by stepping into the ring and doing. Of course, initially trying to navigate new life phases and areas can be daunting in the beginning, but it gets better over time.
On the other hand, being street smart means a person has experienced the practicalities of life. They have been exposed to different people and settings – they have experienced the world for what it is with removed cushions and little to no safety nets, so they know how best to manoeuvre situations practically as they occur. Being an engineer, one thing I can tell you is that while manuals provide guidance on how to fix a piece of equipment or appliance, it is more likely that a person who has first-hand experience fixing the equipment will successfully fix it (and fast!), compared to a person who has only read the manual. To be street smart is to have that first-hand experience. Because in life, we often stay within our contexts, being street smart could be limiting because one only knows the practicalities within one’s contexts. Outside of those settings, it could prove harder to exist, excel or be empathetic.
Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were boys from privileged backgrounds who grew up in their own Jewish bubble – they were from nobility and royalty, young and handsome, healthy and educated (Daniel 1:3-5). Babylon was certainly a different context from where they were coming from. It is no surprise that God blessed them with knowledge and skills from books and life. They needed it.
I like that The Message version describes it as them needing to be book smart and life smart. I think street smartness is a subsect of life smartness. Life smartness brings with it, openness and unlimitedness. You do not have to be from the streets or have a unique experience to be life smart. Life smartness is such that wherever life takes you; be it the most dangerous streets or the preppiest institution on earth; be it the boardroom or the village; a developing country or a developed one, in an authoritarian society or a democratic one… wherever you find yourself, you have the smarts to navigate successfully.
For us to grow, we will likely move from one life phase to the next, from one location to another, meet new people different from the people we have become accustomed to. Hopefully, we have transferrable knowledge and skills for the new; many times, it takes existing in a setting to understand the nuances and unspoken rules needed to survive and thrive. Whatever the context, the beautiful thing is we have a God who is ready to guide us every step of the way. The word encourages us to acknowledge Him in all our ways because He will direct our paths. Wherever we find ourselves or wherever we are led to go, God is always available to lead us, to teach us and to guide us, especially when we feel out of our depth.
Jesus, telling the parable of The Shrewd Manager in Luke 16 said “… the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.” This means there is a certain worldly wisdom needed to navigate the world that many of us God’s children lack. Many people in the world use this wisdom to cheat world systems and institutions for their own gain, often hurting other people in the process. As God’s children, we are not meant to be ignorant of the enemy’s schemes. We are to be very aware of the world’s slickness so that we do not become victims at the mercy of evil people; we can then further shine divine wisdom and light where needed. Remember Jesus says we are to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves (Matthew 10:16). Here are some of my thoughts on having the smarts necessary to thrive in life:
There is no need to be ashamed of one’s initial life experiences and inclinations. We do not have much power over the family we are born into or the life experiences that shape and influence our predispositions. Also, we should not allow other people make us feel bad about the perceived advantages or disadvantages our life experiences provide. Before we were formed in the womb, God knew us. He knit us together Himself, chose our parents and in His sovereignty, allowed the circumstances through which we came into the world. We were chosen for this generation, for this time, and our experiences (even if they do not seem so) are gifts that enable us to thrive in life and point us towards destiny.
“For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, … And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14) – All of Esther’s life experiences (being a Jewish migrant girl, an orphan who was taken care of by her cousin, entering the pageant contest etc.) added up together. Every single bit was important towards that which she was called to do. Our experiences are gifts towards the things we are called to do.
Stay open to learning. Being open to learning, both from books and from choosing to explore life as much as we can, keep us humble and help us have a wider view of life. Reading about different topics, being open to meeting people from different walks of life, being adventurous and trying new things etc. expand our horizons and also help us share our perspectives with other people just like we also learn to see life through other people’s lenses. I believe God was able to bless the Hebrew boys with wisdom from books and wisdom from life because they stayed curious, read books and were open to new experiences. I mean… how else are you going to extract wisdom from books if you do not read them? How will you get wisdom for life if you are not open to living?
When in a new environment/context, take time to acclimatise. It is very wise to first study one’s environment when within a new context. Groups of people have their own culture and unique ways of relating with one another – even different workplaces have different cultures, and different groups have different rites of passage. As a newbie in a setting, it is better to be more quiet than loud. It is wise to learn from observation and slowly create space for oneself through consistency, building healthy relationships and trust. The period of observation helps one decipher if there are any transferrable skills or gaps of knowledge between our previous experiences and our current context – this way we know what to focus our learning on, so we can pick up the skills required to thrive within this new context (if we would like to remain there).
Find the right community. Community is everything, and observation also helps one determine which people are of like minds. Being knitted with a group of people who care for us just as we care for them, and look out for us like we look out for them can be a lifesaver (especially when in a new setting). It can be hard sometimes when there are no communities that match our interests and/or stances on certain life issues – we may have to build the type of community we would like from scratch. The four Hebrew boys were their own community – they looked out for one another, prayed for one another and supported one another through Babylon’s trials. True community will come to our aid when we need it the most and will make sure we are not stranded.
Study to show yourself approved. “Do your best to present yourself to God as one who is approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15) Very simple and straightforward. Do the work. Become excellent at what you do.
Be kind, but have your boundaries in place. As Christians, we are to honour and show love to people irrespective of who they are or where they are from, we are to treat people with respect and kindness. I find that when you are kind to people, they often think it is because you want something from them or that you want to curry their favour – this is how the world thinks. It is important to put one’s foot down and state one’s boundaries very clearly, when necessary, especially when people are not respectful towards us or when they try to take advantage of our kindness. At the end of the day, we aim to please God, not people.
Stay Adaptable. If there is one thing that is constant in life, it is change. Sometimes we find ourselves adjusting to new norms and contexts, and just before we can start to get comfortable, a new phase beckons, or life happens and pull us in a new direction. We need to remember that through life’s twists and turns, God will never leave us. Also, we we rest when we can so we do not burn out of energy.
Remain Integrous. Stick to your ideals. While we may move into new life phases, meet new people and get new experiences, it is important that even in the face of constant change, our core ideals remain core. Right there in Daniel chapter 1, we see the Hebrew boys determine in their hearts not to defile themselves with the king’s meat. Some things just cannot be negotiated. Jesus says the law and the prophets boil down to two commandments – Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind, and Love your neighbour as yourself. We need to bear this in mind as we go through life, and also remember that if we love God, we will obey his commandments (John 14:15).
Do not be hard on yourself if you make mistakes. Even with the best of intentions, having studied all the books to prep us or having allowed ourselves to embrace life boldly, we may still make mistakes, and that is okay. The most important thing is that we take responsibility for our actions and learn from our mistakes. Maya Angelou says “When you know better, you do better.” Do you know who else is great to talk to when we have made mistakes? God. Yes, God. And He will turn it all around and make the situation as clean as can be.
God’s leading over everything. Staying in constant communication with God so that He guides our every step is the best thing we can do. He sees and understands everything we go through. He knows everything, and things that are new to us are not new to Him. #NoBetterGuide
At the Great Commission, before ascending to heaven, Jesus told his disciples “Go into the world…” We are not meant to hide away in our Christian bubbles, we are meant to be light and shine in the world. We are not only meant to know the word, we are also meant to know how this world we live in operates. That way, we can position ourselves to be light in a dark world.
Some theologians believe Paul was able to run with the mandate of spreading the gospel around the world extremely well because of how open-minded he was – he had a wide view of life and was never constrained to one group of people.
The long and short of it all is that we stay open to learning from books and life, while making sure we stick to our core ideals. Comfortingly, God is always ready to give us the smarts we need to navigate life so that we are never stuck.
Toodles.
xoxo
