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Tuesday, June 14, 2005
I rode home on the same bus as her when we were freshmen. She had a great laugh (always very important to me) and was very good at conversation. I was pretty excited when she invited me to her New Year's Eve party that year...her family introduced us all to a tradition up north of banging pots and pans with ladels to make racket at midnight.
I wanted to ask her out...but I really didn't know about all the specifics of how to do that. I was 15 and needed some advice on exactly how to go about doing something like that (ladies, it isn't as easy as you keep saying it is to ask a girl out). I asked my friends at the lunch table. Suffice to say a group of 15 year olds with no dating experience proved to be pretty insufficient.
I had a guy that was discipling me at the time who helped out. She said "yes," and we went out. We stayed good friends throughout high school even though we never really dated beyond that first movie and pizza together. Good advice.
I needed advice on choosing a college because the schools I didn't really want to go to were offering great financial breaks and other incentives, but my dream school was going to be 100% of my fiscal responsibility. I talked to the same guy.
When I needed advice on going into youth ministry as a career, I talked to two different youth pastors as well as the senior pastor at my Bible church. They gave excellent insights on everything from what kind of girl would have to be my choice if I did so, to what to major in at university, and all the practical stuff they could throw at me.
When Tracy and I decided to purchase our first home, we sought out advice from our parents, who had each purchased homes before. They gave us valuable insights into negotiating the best deal as well as what to look for and signing mortgage papers.
When we were going to become parents for the first time, we asked all sorts of people about pregnancy and how our lives would change and all that stuff. They were mostly very helpful...if you leave out all the "labor" descriptions the women put out there for us. Those might've been true, but man...
When we came to Crossroads, we got advice from seminary professors. When we got a house here we asked people who lived here about where to purchase so teens would want to come by.
Even yesterday, we called a trusted friend for some advice on purchasing a car.
Let's be honest.
We all need help living this life.
We all need advice. C'mon. Dear Abby even makes a living giving it.
Yesterday, we looked at the source of who we trust in helping us live this live.
Today, we'll look at the reason we need advice, and why Solomon wrote these sayings down.
From Proverbs 1: 2ff, "To know wisdom and instruction, to discern the sayings of understanding, to recieve instruction in wise behavior, righteousness, justice and equity; To give prudence to the naive, to the youth knowledge and discretion, A wise man will hear and increase in learning, a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel."
The Message has it translated very well for us:
...so we'll know how to live well and right. Who doesn't want to live well? And, you know...there's a wrong way to live, and who wants to live wrongly?
...so we can understand what life means and where it's going. Who hasn't asked those "big picture" questions about who I am and why I'm here?
...a manual for living. Who doesn't want a how-to book on life?
...for learning what's right and just and fair. Even as little kids we have this sense of right and wrong and justice, so this is like the "top of the box" of a board game where all the "rules" are written out so the game is fair as well as fun.
...to teach the inexperienced the ropes. Who among us would love to avoid the hard stuff if we don't have to go through it, right?
...to give our young people a grasp of reality. Wow. What young person doesn't need that?
...there's a thing or two for the seasoned men and women to learn, too. We're really ALL life-long learners, aren't we?
Think about it for a second.
We have a book designed to teach us to live life as it was meant to be lived.
If you watch Oprah or head into a Barnes & Noble you'll see lots of people making lots of money writing books on dieting, or how to be happy, or solving some of life's little problems, or teaching you to play an instrument, or better your love life, or all sorts of ways to make your life better.
And here we have one written by Solomon after years of pursuing God...and being led by God Himself to write it down.
And it don't cost nuthin'.
With that in mind, if God Himself inspired this wisdom, what are some of the reasons Christians generally fail to "dive in" to reading it, and learning to be wise by seeing the world how God sees the world?
Brent 4:26 AM
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