If prudence is wisdom in practical matters, then is there ever a time not to be prudent? Should we ever cast reason to the wind?

C.S. Lewis observes that that genuine prudence requires “a child’s heart, but a grown-up’s head.”  So, for example, when we give to charity out of the kindness of our heart, prudence still requires that we find out first whether the charity is a fraud.

But G.K. Chesterton also recognized that “the Christian virtues of faith, hope, and charity are in their essence as unreasonable [or imprudent] as they can be…charity means pardoning what is unpardonable, or it is no virtue at all. Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all. And faith means believing the incredible, or it is no virtue at all.”

In fact, many of the great stories of faith in the Bible would seem to be among the most imprudent acts of all: Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac; Gideon’s tiny army; Mary’s pouring out of expensive oil on Jesus’s feet, and many others.

So, prudence is wisdom in practical matters—but sometimes life is not about the practical.  A truly wise man knows the difference.

Have a wonderful day.