As people of God who seek to lead for his glory and the blessing of others, what would we request if we could have anything from God that we wanted?

When that very offer was presented to Solomon, the leader of Israel, he asked for wisdom:

“So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”

The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this.1

Authors Dan Cooper and Drew Hiss employ the wisdom God provided Solomon as they show the application of the biblical book of Proverbs to Christian business leaders in their book Sharpen: A Guidebook for Business Ownership and Adventures in Leadership.

The book is a unique combination of scriptural references, business insights drawn from the authors’ experiences, and practical mental models and application ideas.

The authors stress the importance of applying God’s wisdom, in contrast to the mere acquisition of knowledge or information:

. . . wisdom is different from information. Knowing something doesn’t make you wise. It just gives you the information you need. Your attitudes, beliefs, values, morals, and discipline are what give you the context that, when paired with knowledge, inform your actions. (p. 12)

Throughout the book, Cooper and Hiss intersperse real-life experiences regarding business activities like starting a business, expanding into new territories or markets, managing in crisis, and many others. They share frankly about their challenges and even failures. The book is unique in that each chapter relates the wisdom of Proverbs to some aspect of business leadership.

Sharpen is structured into forty-one short chapters divided into nine thematic sections:

• “Part 1: Getting Wisdom” introduces the importance of desiring, seeking, and obtaining wisdom, especially for the enterprises we are called to lead.
• “Part 2: Leaders Lead, Get On With It” surveys verses in Proverbs related to key aspects of leadership like planning, decision-making, and recognizing others.
• “Part 3: Building Key Relationships” addresses relationships with business partners, your own family members, and your friendship network.
• “Part 4: Love People, Use Money” explores the many proverbs related to the use of money, including the deceitfulness of wealth, the use of debt, and expressions of generosity.
• “Part 5: Versus” is a fascinating investigation of key contrasts in the Proverbs and their application to our businesses: The Fool versus the Wise, Pride versus Humility, and Laziness versus Hard Work.
• “Part 6: Your Tongue is On Fire” helps us see how our tongues can get us into trouble and even destroy what we have labored to build.
• “Part 7: Don’t Be Evil (Or Stupid)” addresses extreme but (sadly) real instances when we can commit evil acts if we lack integrity and fail to address our errors quickly and fully.
• “Part 8: Barriers to Success” is an especially critical section on potential enterprise-killers like Greed, Anger, Revenge, and Envy.
• “Part 9: Me Management” ends with the positive exhortation to pursue Joy, Faith, Patience, and Righteousness.

We recommend not trying to read Sharpen in a short time. Instead, the book seems ideal for reading about a chapter each day – it could even be treated as a devotional.

Sharpen is an excellent guide to applying God’s wisdom from the book of Proverbs in the context of the enterprises we lead, and we highly recommend it for missional enterprise leaders.2

Verse(s) of the Week:

Let’s ask God for the wisdom from above, and seek to understand and apply it with all our hearts this week.