Read Proverbs 12
I could just
take the week off and say there is God’s way and there is everything else. I could do that for several chapters, but there
are more nuggets than this simple but accurate dichotomy give us.
For
instance, Stupid is as stupid does.
The person
who hates correction is stupid. Many
grew up being told not to call anyone stupid, but Solomon tells us there is a
clear exception. It is the person who
ignores the counsel of the Lord. That’s
different than being ignorant of what the Lord has to say.
It’s knowing
what the Lord has to say and rejecting it outright.
The fool declares in his heart that there is no God.
We began
this journey with a simple declaration about knowledge, wisdom, instruction and
discipline.
The fear of
the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
A person is
a fool to despise wisdom and instruction or wisdom and discipline. A person is stupid to hate correction. The classifications seem harsh but realize in
rejecting instruction and discipline and correction, the person that Solomon
labels a fool is saying, I already know it all. You—not even God—can teach me anything.
There is a
saying going around that rings true. A
coach can help you with your mistakes but nobody can help you with your
excuses.
We can only
receive correction where we acknowledge a mistake or a miscue. If we think we know it all, correction seems
useless to us.
We have been down this road for a while and will continue on it to the end.
Listen to
advice and accept discipline,
and at the end you will be counted among
the wise.
Here’s a coupling of verses that we have already studied.
Instruct the
wise and they will be wiser still;
teach the righteous and they will add to
their learning.
The fear of
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
and knowledge of the Holy One is
understanding.
Wisdom—which
includes prudence, discretion, knowledge, acceptance of counsel and
correction—was present at the foundation of the world. How could we reject it?
Solomon
makes yet another appeal. This one is a
bit more on the blunt side than others that are more poetic. If you reject the wisdom and counsel of the
Lord, you are just stupid. Stupid!
These are
not words of evangelism. They probably
won’t bring anyone to God. They are what
we have seen from Solomon before.
Wake
up. Pay attention. Get this and get it good. He calls out to those who are about to step
off a cliff and shouts: Stop!
If you saw a
loved one about to step off a dangerous cliff, would you casually comment to the
person next to you, Hope he doesn’t step off or would you shout Stop!
Not everyone
is about to step off of a cliff. Some
just struggle day-to-day with seeking God and his wisdom. This whole read a chapter a day may seem
daunting to some. Others can’t find the
time. You can binge-watch something on
Netflix but can’t find the time for a chapter a day.
The counsel
and correction that we need to navigate this life come in seeking God and his
wisdom on a daily basis.
What I am
talking about is learning to ride a bicycle. Imagine learning to ride a bicycle
like climbing a mountain. You start out
in the foothills. It’s new but not too
challenging. You probably had training
wheels.
Then the
lateral fail-safes came off and you started riding and you made some progress
and you fell over. You got back up and
went a little farther and fell over.
This happened again and again and there were some skinned knees and
bruised elbows.
Then you
reached the checkout point. What’s the
checkout point? It’s that point where
you lay down the bicycle and think, If I was walking, I would already be
there by now.
But, if you
will pick up the bicycle and try one more time, or two more times, or a dozen
more times, you find that you have crested the mountain and are on the
downhill. It is from that point forward
that you go everywhere on your bicycle, even if it’s just to the end of the
block.
You pop
wheelies, ride with no hands on the handlebars, and put playing cards in the
spokes. You go everywhere on your
bicycle, at least until you get your driver’s permit. Then you can’t remember
where you left your bicycle.
But you have
to get past the checkout point. At some
point when you don’t feel like you are getting anywhere, you still have to
press on.
Such is the
case with reading your chapter each day.
At some point, it just doesn’t click.
It seems pointless and hardly fulfilling. It’s like, I could have had another 15
minutes of sleep, but you press on anyway and read your chapter.
If you get
past your checkout point, you find that it’s not too far to where you crest the
peak and are on the downhill. It won’t
be, I have to read my chapter or as is the case here, Tom is making
me read my Bible. It will be, I
can hardly wait to read my chapter today and tomorrow and the next day.
The person
who hates correction is stupid, thus the one who hungers for the Lord’s
correction is wise. We long to be counseled by the Word of God on a daily
basis.
We have a
methodology that is effective. We could
change the method at some point, but for now it produces good fruit, at least
for those who pressed on through the checkout point.
To not
receive the counsel of the Lord is just plain stupid.
Solomon
pounds the pulpit one more time and says pay attention. There is God’s way and there is everything
else and it’s just stupid to live in the everything else.
Tom pounds
the pulpit and says press on. Read your
chapter every day, even when you don’t feel like it.
Long ago and
far away I went to a 2-year school in Quantico, Virginia that lasted 6
months. It was the drinking from a fire
hose metaphor extended for half a year.
I remember
one day we had 3 exams and were headed out to the field for a weekend exercise
after evening chow, but before we headed out to the field, we took the Air
Force Officers Qualification Test. It
wasn’t part of our curriculum, but just something the services did to see how
the services compared to each other, at least as far as entry criteria.
The captain
administering the test said that traditionally, Marine officers didn’t do too
well. I thought, could it be because
you don’t give us the test until we are already brain dead?
But the
drinking from a firehose continued for six months. It was hard to tell if you had learned
anything because you were already learning the next thing, but for the next 20
years, I had an internal library to call upon.
It had registered and been cataloged and was available for retrieval.
In between
the plethora of golden nuggets that compose the Proverbs are Solomon’s
reminders to stay the course. Pay
attention. Listen to my words. Don’t be
stupid!
My counsel
is to press on through the checkout point.
It gets easier and your desire to receive the counsel and correction of
the Lord grows.
There is
God’s way and there is everything else and you will grow hungry for God’s way,
including his correction.
Let me put
it this way. Yes, it is stupid to live
in the everything else, but seldom does negative motivation get you up the hill
and past the checkout point.
So let’s put
this in the positive reinforcement mode.
Desiring the correction of God’s way is wise. Be numbered among the wise.
Amen.
