Friday, January 9, 2015

January 10, 2015

"Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech: "How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?" Proverbs 1:20-22

If wisdom was easy, just about everyone would be wise!

Wisdom demands that you choose wisdom by asking at every impulse, every invitation and every opportunity, "in light of my past experiences, my current circumstances and my future hopes and dreams, what is the wise thing for me to do?"

Once you ask the question you must act upon the clarity you receive from the answer.

These verses in Proverbs expose three types who opt not to choose wisdom. There are the simple and there are the mockers and there are the fools.

I will have a lot to say about each of those types tomorrow in my message.

One of things that makes it difficult to live wisely is the number of simple people, fools and mockers who opt out of living wisely. And the closer your relationship and interaction with the simple, the fools and the mockers the more difficult it can be to ask and act on the question, "What is the wise thing for me to do?"

The simple lack wisdom primarily because they are inexperienced at life. They haven't learned which questions to ask in order to get the answers they need. But the poor choices they make in their inexperience can complicate decision-making for others who care about them.

Fools lack wisdom because they don't care to have it. They want to do what gives them pleasure and care not for the consequences. Despite knowing the wise thing to do they simply choose to do what they want to do. When they blow up their lives with their careless and reckless choices they create collateral damage.

Simple people lack wisdom because they are inexperienced and foolish people lack wisdom because they reject it, but the mocker not only rejects wisdom but will ridicule those who seek wisdom. Mockers are arrogant enough to believe they are already smarter than everyone else. Mockers try to control their world and everyone in it through criticism and cynicism. It is nearly impossible to reach a mocker or have a meaningful relationship with them.

In a world complicated by the poor decisions of the simple, the recklessness of fools and the opposition of mockers, what are the wise to do?

Ask it!

In light of my past experience, my current circumstances and my future hopes and dreams what is the wise thing for me to do?

And act on it!