Why don't you understand?

People who do not have God’s Spirit do not accept the things that come from his Spirit. They think these things are foolish. They cannot understand them, because they can only be understood with the Spirit’s help. (I Corinthians 2:14)

If you have ever wondered why some people just don't seem to understand what God is doing in your life, it could just be that they haven't met Jesus yet and therefore, they don't understand what you are sharing with them. The Spirit of God is necessary to 'interpret' the things God is doing - to really connect with these things, one needs his Spirit. It is easy for them to understand the things of this world, for that is where their minds are connected. Once there is a connection established between them and God by the power of God's Spirit, they will soon come to understand the things God is doing in and around them, as well.

We sometimes try to communicate the things God is doing in our lives in a way that those without God's Spirit can understand, but it is harder than you think. The things of God's grace are not that easy to understand when you can only see them in a purely 'natural' sense. Sometimes God's plans and actions are behind the scenes of our lives, but we can sense there is something going on. Try explaining the battles going on in the heavenly realms on your behalf to an unbeliever and they might just think you are ready for the looney bin! Although they know there may be a God, and even that they may have a 'guardian angel' watching over them, it is hard for them to believe that God has forces at work right now battling demonic forces on your behalf.

God's Spirit is like a tutor in the lives of a believer, but he acts as the one who helps an unbeliever realize their need for God's grace in their lives. Once he has accomplished that, he then becomes their tutor, as well. It is good to know that we are all 'tutored' by the same tutor! Even after we invite Christ into our lives, the Spirit of God will still bring conviction in our lives - in any area where we are not walking as we should be with Jesus. If we allow sin and compromise to continue, he will convict us, but this conviction is not 'unto salvation' because we are already 'saved' in the sense that we have invited Christ into our lives and had our sins washed away by the blood of Jesus. 

We all need God's Spirit - believer and unbeliever alike. He just has a different 'role' in our lives when we aren't believers yet. We might not be able to fully express God's grace as well as he does, but when he confirms what we say about grace to an unbeliever, it opens doors for them to enter into that grace themselves. Just sayin!

Stir it up

I need to know your commands. Don’t keep them hidden from me. I constantly feel a hunger to understand your laws. (Psalm 119:19-20)

The psalmist has just said he feels a bit like a stranger on this earth - something we might have felt ourselves from time to time. When things get a little too wonky for our taste, or the tides of change are just more than we can endure, we might actually tell God things are a 'little foreign' to us. The very thing our psalmist does is what we likely should do, as well - he asks God to help him understand - to really 'know' his commands. Why? There is a hunger for truth that God 'plants' within each of us that drives this 'urge to know' truth.

This hunger doesn't come naturally - it is God 'planted' within our spirits. Our mind might seek to understand truth, but the hunger for it comes from deep within our spirit. It is within our spirit that we commune with God - where his presence dwells. We might not realize it when we pray for wisdom, but we are really asking God to keep us on course. If you have ever been enticed off-course for even a short while, you know that something inside of you is urging your return to truth. Why? Your spirit is one with God's now and his Spirit cannot abide in sin, so you are convicted and urged to turn away from that course.

How constant is your hunger for truth? If it isn't pretty gnawing at times, you might just need to ask God to 'stir up' those seeds of truth he has planted within you and let him draw you back into truth's pathway. The more we get his truth inside our minds, the more our spirit will desire even more of truth's evidence to be revealed within our lives. It is like we cannot live without it - like it is the very 'life source' we need in order to survive in a crazy, mixed-up world that does nothing more than create chaos in our minds, emotions, and souls. 

We may think God is hiding his truths from us, but it is likely that we haven't taken time to discover it as we should. His truth abides within, but sometimes we need to have it stirred up a bit in order to realize it is at work inside of us. Just sayin!

Are we there yet?

If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do. (James 1:5-8)

We are reminded in Proverbs 3:5-7 to "Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take." As we all have varying backgrounds, we likely approach life's challenges in various ways. We might just find ourselves turning to this world's wisdom first, then when it doesn't do what we hoped it would do, we turn to God. As long as we rely upon the wisdom the world offers, we will be limited in our perception of the issue. The limitation? We see things through our natural eyes - emotions being played upon, we respond based upon emotion, not godly wisdom. Godly wisdom is always available to us, but we might just have to stop long enough to ask for it, ruminate on it a bit, and then allow its application in our lives.

There are probably more times we lack wisdom than we might first admit. We come headlong into a situation and then we stumble around a bit until we realize what we possess in the way of earthly knowledge isn't cutting it. Pride sometimes gets in the way of us asking for God's help - making it almost impossible to avoid the hiccups that come from facing things we cannot control, much less fully understand all in our own wisdom. Once we put aside our pride and turn to God for his help, we find new wisdom for the circumstances at hand. Although we delayed in seeking his wisdom, he never criticizes us or judges us when we take so long to ask! It is far better to ask sooner than later, but some of us just take a bit of time to put our pride in the backseat and allow God to take over. Remember, God always welcomes our requests for help - we might not think so, but we find repeated examples of his intervening grace recorded for us in scripture whenever someone humbles themselves before him.

Sometimes we don't ask for God's help because we think the answer we receive will be a little different or 'worse' than what we imagined the answer to be. It may not be the answer we anticipated, but God's answers are always the best ones - we must rely upon his wisdom to keep us protected, and within the safety of his caring arms. God hears the first word we utter and he isn't afraid to answer, but sometimes he allows us to get things out of our system in prayer before he begins the work of answering. He isn't afraid to show us his will, but sometimes we need to get to the place we will accept it and walk in it! Just sayin!

Behold...

Blaise Pascal told us, "You always admire what you really don't understand." To admire something, one is merely regarding something with a sense of awe or wonder - there is an element of surprise or beauty in what one comprehends in that moment, evoking some sort of 'feeling'. It creates a sense of 'desire' or 'wanting' within us that makes us look for more of what it is we are beholding. If we are 'admiring' a work of art, we might just be able to view it in the local museum - returning time after time to 'refresh' that sense of pleasure it evokes. We don't own it, though. It has not become fully acquired as our own. If we approach God this way, we might 'return' from time to time to get that 'feeling', but we aren't able to sustain it for very long. God isn't to be simply 'admired' as someone we don't fully understand - he wants close, personal, and continual relationship with us.

“And so, my children, listen to me, for all who follow my ways are joyful. Listen to my instruction and be wise. Don’t ignore it. Listen to my instruction and be wise. Don’t ignore it. Joyful are those who listen to me, watching for me daily at my gates, waiting for me outside my home! For whoever finds me finds life and receives favor from the Lord." (Proverbs 8:33-35)

Listen as Wisdom calls out...hear as understanding raises her voice (v.1). God is calling out - hear his voice. We may not fully understand his ways when we first respond to him, but that doesn't mean we won't come into a deeper understanding as we draw closer and closer to him. If you didn't realize this already, there is an 'intentional' placing of oneself into his care each and every day. We don't just wake up, gaze upon him as a 'work of art', admire him a bit, and then go about our business. We may bring Jesus into our home, treating him as a 'work of art' to be admired from time to time, but that isn't relationship - it won't bring a greater understanding of who he is and how he moves.

Watching implies a readiness to not only see, but to interpret what we are seeing, allowing the recognition to spur us into action. Not all 'watching' is done with the eyes, though. Sometimes it is our heart that is pondering something we have learned - ruminating on it until we come into a fuller understanding of what it is we have 'beheld'. This is how truth moves from words on a page into the wisdom that forms the basis of all our actions of the day. Wisdom is more than deeper understanding - it is the personality and heart of Christ actually beginning to come alive within us, affecting our thoughts, helping to choose our actions. We might not fully appreciate truth the first time we are exposed to it but behold it often enough and it begins to transform our lives. Just sayin!

Stop bullying me!

Has it been one of those seasons where no matter how hard you try to move one step forward, you feel like you are taking two steps backward? No matter what you do, you just cannot seem to break free of whatever it is that is keeping you in the muddle and trials you are in. Sometimes I think this 'muddle' is just my own doing - because I have bitten off way more than I can chew. My plate is overloaded and the only way to be clear of the pressure is to get some of the stuff off my plate which really doesn't belong there in the first place. There are other times when I just cannot tell you why I am feeling a little oppressed and pushed down, but it happens more than I'd like to admit. I think those times might just be when the enemy of my soul wants me to get distracted from what is important in life - adding muddle and mess wherever he can. How about you? Sometimes you just need to push some of the stuff back off your plate, other times you might just need to push back against the one who is "bullying" your soul!

God is strong, and he wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels. (Ephesians 6:10-12)

The devil beats us up unnecessarily for he is already defeated - he is just doing his best to convince us otherwise! If we'd learn to put on the full armor we are given and actually use it to resist the attacks of the enemy of our souls, we might just be able to hold our ground against his attacks! Lest we think he doesn't know where to attack us in our lives, be assured of this - there is nothing "uncommon" in our struggles that others have not already struggled with. He just knows how we ALL struggle - so he uses these "common" areas as a means to get us focused on the stuff that gets us down and under the weight of life in general. Lest we think our enemy has no plan of attack - let me assure you, we probably give him some "hints" about how it is we can be attacked! Hints like us not being very kind in our responses when we are tired, or like when we don't plan ahead well and leave late for a specific appointment, then get all bogged down in traffic. We sometimes like to blame him for these events, but in actuality, these are common struggles for all of us, so if he can use them to his benefit, he will! He doesn't necessarily make us tired, nor does he send the traffic - but he will use them to get us to take our eyes off what really matters.

He will often get us to focus on what more can be added into our day, and this gets us into our trouble. If someone does something that we may not normally react to, but in our tiredness, we somehow "read more into it" than we should, we might respond with the feeling a bit of stress added to our day. We "add into" the situation because of our own interpretation of the circumstances viewed through already overextended and over-tired eyes! We know we need to spend time within our relationships - "quality time" - while not being distracted and focused intentionally on each other. Then we get this genius idea to just combine a little work with the pleasure and we somehow no longer have this non-distracted, intentional focus in the "quality time". He will get us to considering the "alternatives" to the way we know we should go, and we get duped again. We could do something this way, OR we could do it another way, often presented as the easier way. We could sweep the floor, or just kick the crumbs under the throw rug! The alternative which seems so much easier is presented to us, usually in such a way that suggests we were entitled to have it be this easy in the first place. Just a little advice here - what appears too easily accomplished or obtained is usually not the best plan!

Adding things into our day adds complications we didn't need. Taking the easy way presents short-cuts which really do little to simplify our lives and usually just delay the original plan. Since the Garden of Eden, our enemy has been using the same two tactics. If we become aware of how he operates, we might just be able to resist his attacks a little easier. God is strong and he wants us strong. What we do with the wisdom we are given will ultimately determine how strong we will stand. What are we given? "Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You’ll need them throughout your life. God’s Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out." (Ephesians 6:13-18)

Be prepared. The only attacks which are successful in our lives are when we don't prepare well. If we did a little "up front" consideration of what we put on our plate, or what will impact our ability to finish well, we might take a little less into our grasp! We cannot handle this alone. We need others who will come along side, especially the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We want relationship, but we don't take the time to invest in it. We are robbed of one of our greatest weapons against his attacks whenever we attempt to stand alone. The value of well-developed relationships is best understood in the times of our deepest personal need. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation - weapons in their own right. Truth sets us straight, so we aren't duped into believing our own vain imaginations. Righteousness helps us stand upright when all of our enemy's hosts would want us to look backward at our failures. Peace determines the steadiness of our walk and gives us the assurance we don't walk alone. Faith keeps us directed on what we cannot see, but what we have come to accept and stand on as true in our live. Salvation is the anchor which holds us when we might want to drift.

We need to talk WITH God. Prayer is more than talking TO God - it is talking WITH God. Two-way conversation - open to receive what he gives. We sell ourselves short when all we come to do is TELL God and never stop to LISTEN TO God. Most of the time, it is in these listening times where we discover we have been giving into the "AND" and the "OR" tactics of our enemy. In these moments of being WITH Jesus, we discover we didn't need the "AND" and we cannot count on the "OR". Time to stop being 'bullied' into believing otherwise! Just sayin!

So, that's what I am worth!

God blesses everyone who has wisdom and common sense. Wisdom is worth more than silver; it makes you much richer than gold. Wisdom is more valuable than precious jewels; nothing you want compares with her. (Proverbs 3:13-15)

Wisdom, worship, and worth - could wisdom lead to worship, worship to worth? Wisdom is really application of the knowledge we have already received. It is when we finally make the connection between the "how-to" and the "let's get 'er done". Worship is simply a matter of heartfelt dedication and directed thought, action, and emotion toward another. Our attention is to be directed toward none other than God - perhaps because he has shown us how to make the connection and we are finally 'getting 'er done'. Worth is sometimes the hardest thing for us to get hold of because we have all kinds of things running around in our minds about "worth" that aren't actually 'truth-based'. The term "worth" was originally attributed to the value of a coin. As a lump of silver, gold or bronze was fashioned into a coin, it was given a "worth" based on its weight. The more it circulated, the less its worth. Why? It wore down. Instead of the "worth" being consistent, it was diminished by its use. I think this is where we might find ourselves today - we feel diminished by how we have been "used" or by how we have "used" ourselves! We have taken on the 'how-to' and tried to figure out the 'get 'er done' all by ourselves - taking God out of the picture. Then we wonder why we never feel like worshiping, or feel 'devalued' when we see our end result.

At the point the coin maker created the small coin, he had an intended "worth" for the coin. He put into it exactly what it needed to have "full value". As long as it was uncirculated, it maintained the "full value" - but why make a coin unless it has a purpose? The purpose of the coin was for it to be given in exchange for something. The one who possesses the coin has a clear indication of its worth. Wisdom directs him how to make the most of the full value of the coin. Worship directed how he would use the coin. Worth determined the return on his investment. Too many times we "diminish" the worth of what our Creator has placed in our lives - through our negative talk, or self-deprecating behavior. The issue is not the "declared worth" of our lives, but the "believed worth" of them. We don't make the connection between God's "measurement" of our worth and our "perception" of its worth. We forget that unlike the coin, the "circulation" of our lives in areas where we got tumbled around a bit in some pretty dark places doesn't diminish our worth in Christ's eyes. In fact, when he rescues us from those dark places, he actually returns us to the refiner's fire! It is not so we can experience pain all over again, but so he can re-fashion us as we were originally created - so we return to our "full-worth"!

Common sense and wisdom don't always interact well together. We learn common sense through experience. You don't need "Bible knowledge" to figure out some of life's challenges - you need common sense! You do need "Bible knowledge" to get to the place of exhibiting wisdom in the choices you consistently make. You need "application" of the knowledge you are exposed to. In other words, learn what the Word of God says about God's creation. Get it straight in your mind and then let God get it straight in your heart! Wisdom is when we finally get our eyes off of what we "think" we know about ourselves and let God direct us toward what it is he sees as the reality of our worth in his hands! We allow God (our Creator) to declare the "worth" of our lives instead of us determining it based on our past or present experiences. Worship directs our focus - gets our eyes off of us and what we think about ourselves. Wisdom helps us connect the dots, so to speak. Worth is a result of the right focus, combined with the right understanding, affecting the beliefs we adopt as reality in our lives. Get the first two right and the issues we have with the latter one will soon begin to melt away. Just sayin!

That isn't what I thought I saw

Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint; but blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s instruction. (Psalm 29:18)

Many of us think of 'vision' as the ability to see with our eyes. When it is not there, such as when we have been plunged into darkness by someone covering our eyes with a blindfold, we grope our way through life, don't we? We have to rely upon our other senses or else we will stumble. How well do you move in this state of total darkness? Are your movements as fluid as normal? Not likely - you probably take shorter steps, feeling your way to make sure your footing is solid before you even take the next one. I think we sometimes approach our spiritual life this same way - with a "blindfold" of sorts making us "stumble along" with uncertainty and a lack of vision. Vision is more than what we see with our eyes - it is what we hope in our hearts, understand with our minds, and sense in our spirit. Perception and discernment - the combined form of actually "seeing" and "knowing". If you have ever seen something, but then had to ponder for a while what the thing was you were beholding, you might know what it is like to possess sight without understanding. If you can interpret the general shape of an object while blindfolded, you might be able to guess at what it is you are not seeing, but you might not know for sure. Perception and discernment go hand-in-hand. They are God's way of helping us not only walk, but to do so with assurance and firm foundation.

Perception is the ability of the mind to actually apprehend an idea - we call this cognition. Discernment is the ability to put some "discriminating thought" into what it is we perceive. In other words, we can make some "judgment" based on what we know. We are reminded that without vision a people perish. In other words, when we don't have a clear perception of the redemptive work of Christ in our lives, we stumble around a lot. We need to apprehend (comprehend) the redemptive work of Christ - making us new creations in him. We give a lot of "lip-service" to this idea of being new creatures in Christ, but I wonder how many of us are really wearing our blindfolds and just stumbling along trying to perceive, but having our perception blocked by the self-imposed blindfold. Open your eyes with a blindfold on and what do you see? The blindfold! With the blindfold in place, we only have "internal reminders" of the things we previously perceived. We stumble around the furnishings because we remember their general shape, size, and likely location. We don't actually see them, but we recall what it is we know about them in order to avoid them. I wonder how many "hazards" in life we merely stumble around, blindfold in place, simply with the use of our "internal reminders" of them being there? The memories we form might give us a perception of the way things "were", but the ability to discern how they "are" now is only possible when the blindfold is removed by the grace of God's work in our lives.

The purpose of the blindfold is to impair the awareness or clear thinking of the one who is wearing it. When we put a blindfold on a child, spin him around, and then send him toward the picture of the donkey on the wall with a little "tail" to pin on it, how does the child respond? It becomes clear that his awareness of his surroundings is altered by the blindfold and his disorientation as to where he 'stopped' when he launched forward to pin the tail. He doesn't think clearly, but blindly walks forward (at least he thinks he is walking forward) and aims at whatever he comes into contact with. The danger is the tail may get "pinned" where it doesn't belong! Awareness or clear thinking are necessary in order to perceive. Until we have clear thinking, the thing we "think" we perceive will be only based on what it is we have formed an internal reminder about in our memory. Vision is the ability to have clear thinking and awareness of the redemptive work Christ is doing and has done in us. The redemptive work began at the moment we welcomed Jesus into our lives as our Savior. The work continues each day until we reach perfection in Christ Jesus. Since none of us are there yet, I believe we need to continually ask him to help us remove the blindfold from our eyes, so we see clearly what he desires to do in every area of our lives. We can stumble around with past memories (internal reminders), or we can get a fresh perceptive. The choice is ours. I think it is time to begin to ask God to remove some of the blindfolds we might have just kept on because we were afraid of the light! Light exposes, but once it does, the internal reminders are free to be understood exactly for what they are - past perceptions which need not influence our present reality! Just sayin!

Get rid of the sack

A gentle response defuses anger, but a sharp tongue kindles a temper-fire. (Proverbs 15:1)

It is fire season here in Arizona - summer storms bringing lightning strikes that catch very dry timber on fire very easily. With the approaching monsoon season, the winds begin to pick up and the afternoon winds seem to carry those embers to new areas very easily, allowing the fire to spread sometimes with wild abandon. Add to this the complexity of rocky crags that make doing any kind of fire-line breaks almost impossible and you have the makings of very resistive fires. What the firefighters seem to dread more than anything is that weather report indicating the winds will pick up, or never die down for long periods of time. Why? They realize every wind gust means longer days and nights of fighting that fire!

Gentle breezes are one thing, but the gusts of our rainy season are another. Gentle breezes mean you might just get ahead of the fire's spread. The billowing gusts of up to 60 mph signal longer hours of 'fire-fighting', greater depths of exhaustion from the hard work, and longer periods of time alienated from the relationships that matter to them. Does this sound at all like what happens when we let our words carry us down the path to angry responses? I can see how one ember 'catches hold' and sparks a huge flaming fire, can't you? In time, it is 'fueled' by whatever has been left 'unsaid' in much the same way as the tiny ember of the fire is able to 'take hold' because of the dense undergrowth in the forest.

I have sat idly by blazing campfires, watching as those tiny embers are carry upward upon the heat of the flames, into the night sky. I know each one carried the potential to be a full-fledged fire. I really need to think about my words in much the same way. I need to think of them as tiny embers, carried upon the 'heat' of the flames of whatever 'moment' I find myself in. I have watched as they were carried upon the winds of some 'curt words' or 'not well-planned answers' and 'fanned' into a full-fledged 'anger storm'. I didn't intend for any of those 'sparks' to take hold and begin another firestorm, but they did. The realization of just how much 'fuel' might be 'laying around' in our lives for such fires to take hold is also quite eye-opening to me. Why is it we let things go untended until they pile up into one nice, nasty mess of 'kindling' for the next 'hot ember' that comes our way?

There are things we need to clean up and discard, aren't there? Anger only takes hold where there is kindling for the ember. An ember will 'burn out' if there is no kindling. I have been guilty of doing something one of my college professors referred to as 'gunny-sacking'. That means I just 'store away' those tiny things I say 'rolled off my back', but really the didn't. They just rolled into this 'sack' of woes and heartache until one day I find the sack is so full I need to empty the contents! God bless the one whose 'ember' finds the fuel in that sack! Have you been there? Letting things go (or saying you did), only to find you have just let them roll down your back into a huge sack of woes you carry along until that one moment when the ember was just right to lay hold of all that was in there?

If we don't want 'anger storms' in our lives, we need to discard the sack - not just keep it empty! I have heard people say they needed to empty their sack and then all would be well, but in reality we shouldn't even have the sack. It is impossible to keep the fuel out of our relationships unless we are doing a constant 'clean up' of the 'undergrowth' that actually fuels fires. In much the same way the forest rangers clean the forest floors and cut out the dead low-hanging limbs on the trees, we need to pay close attention to the condition of our 'relationship forests'. Embers will come from time to time, but the condition of our allowed 'undergrowth' determines if there will be a full-fledged fire that comes. Just sayin!

Ask the Community?

I have run into people in this world who are quite smart, but not very 'smart', if you know what I mean. They have all the IQ they could ever put to use, but sometimes they lack the common sense to go along with that very well-developed IQ. Our 'intelligence quotient' doesn't always make us wise. Wisdom comes more by making the right connections rather than adding more 'smarts' to our list of already too long 'smarts'. The right connections begin with our relationship with Christ - to know him is to gain understanding (wisdom). There is more to knowing God than just calling ourselves a Christian, going to church, and under-scoring a few favorite passages in a leather-bound Bible. There is more to wisdom than just getting 'smarter'.

If you want to become wise, you must begin by respecting the Lord. To know the Holy One is to gain understanding. (Proverbs 9:10)

It should come as no surprise to us that we need to 'become' wise - implying none of us is born with 'wisdom' as our mode of operation in life. We may have been born with an ability to learn, but if learning is only directed toward the things that this world teaches us, we will be 'wisdom poor' in the end. What we lack in wisdom isn't found in the 'books'. It is found in the relationship (connection) we make with the Creator of all things - God himself. We begin by 'respecting' the Lord - in other words, we acknowledge him as our Lord and Savior, then we begin to defer to his authority in our lives. More often than not the place where we struggle is in this 'deference' part. 

Wisdom comes to us when we are rightly connected - because wisdom isn't a 'thing', it is a person - Christ. Have you ever considered something for so long, becoming more and more frustrated with it, then walked away from it for a while? When you finally walk away, what happened? It is quite possible that you realized there was a different solution to the issue at hand. Why did it take 'walking away' to give you that answer? There is something about being so close to something that you cannot see anything any other way than what you have been considering over and over again. I think this is why God asks us for us to 'leave' in order for us to 'cleave'. We leave behind our old ways of thinking in order to learn how it is we can think differently.

Wisdom isn't 'brand new thinking' as much as it is 'thinking rightly' about life's actions. When we make this connection with Jesus we are saying we want to forsake the prior way of considering life's choices. We want to defer to a new way of pursuing life's actions, so we need to learn from the one who not only gives all wisdom, but who is wisdom itself. This past week, I posted a blog entitled "I am not thinking straight" and do you know what happened? Facebook gave one of those suggestions that only I could see that invited me to 'ask my community for help'! I laughed a while as I considered the 'algorithm' that post went through within the social media site that popped out that suggestion that I needed 'help' on the matter of 'not thinking straight'! 

The help we all need in 'thinking straight' - the type of thinking some will actually refer to as being 'wise' - is not in asking the 'social community' for the wisdom, but in asking God to become more evident in our thinking processes. In other words, we can actually 'experience' his sorting out of our thoughts, placing them in more than just 'right order', but actually helping us to discard the ones that only get us into trouble or serve no purpose in our life. We can begin to sense the presence of Christ within us helping us see things as he sees them - that different perspective we have when we 'sort out' what isn't helping us. Wisdom is indeed all about 'connection', but not so much within the 'community' as much as it is with the one who IS wisdom - Christ Jesus. Just sayin!

Oh, that's why!

Maybe we haven't really stopped to consider it, but God's decisions or actions don't always have to be popular or accepted by the masses to be 'right'. They just have to be 'on target' - consistent with his character, true to his Word, and always based on a bigger picture than we can appreciate with our finite view of life. Some of the time, God is blamed for things he didn't do - the results of our own actions and the consequences that we reap, for example. We somehow want to blame God because we are reaping something not very desirable at the moment, but if we are to be truthful here - he didn't determine the consequences - we did! This is all the more reason we need to consistently (and frequently) ask God to show us how to live and then to understand how those 'right actions' all add up to helping us live to the fullest.

You are right and you do right, God; your decisions are right on target. You rightly instruct us in how to live ever faithful to you. My rivals nearly did me in, they persistently ignored your commandments. Your promise has been tested through and through, and I, your servant, love it dearly. I’m too young to be important, but I don’t forget what you tell me. Your righteousness is eternally right, your revelation is the only truth. Even though troubles came down on me hard, your commands always gave me delight. The way you tell me to live is always right; help me understand it so I can live to the fullest. Psalm 119:143 MSG

God's Word is a starting place for the discovery of right actions. Yes, the Bible contains some stories that serve as examples of some pretty 'wrong' actions, but there is benefit in realizing others have made similar mistakes to ours! It gives us assurance God values us even after we make 'big mistakes' in life. God's Word is filled with not only promises, but with warnings. The promises are often where we gravitate when we are looking for the Word to help us feel 'good' and 'loved'. The warnings are probably not as quickly referenced! We sometimes avoid the warnings because they make us a little uncomfortable - either because we have been considering some not so great course of action, or have already been pursuing it a while!

God doesn't 'make' us pursue a course of action - we choose to pursue it. While he is capable of 'making us' live right, he isn't going to go against what we are choosing to do. Yes, he will continue to present us with warnings about those choices or actions. Yes, he will continue to be faithful to his promises. Yes, he will send reminders of his love and grace. But...there comes a time for each of us where we 'choose' the path we will take. We can choose the right or the wrong - but it is never God pushing us down one or the other. It is us taking steps along with him down the right one, and us deciding to leave him at the crossroads by going it alone down the wrong one. Yet, even when going down the wrong one, he provides warnings and beckons us back with his promises.

We don't always understand 'right choices', do we? As a little girl, I learned there were ten commandments - you know the ones I mean, right? These stood as pretty 'big' commandments in the scheme of things and were to be 'kept' at all times. Take one of those commandments as an example - like the one that tells us not to steal. That seems like a pretty straight-forward one, doesn't it? The right choice is to work for what we need, but have our bellies ever been so hungry we have snatched a piece of fruit from a market? The choice to 'steal' at that moment was overridden by our hunger. So, we know our 'obedience' to that commandment may be 'conditioned' by what we are going through, right? Now, take the commandment to not covet our neighbor's wife, desire their house, field, servants, or livestock. How often does the struggle to not 'covet' or 'desire' something someone else have plague us? Sometimes pretty frequently!

The commandments weren't given to deny us things that are pleasurable. They were given to help us live within boundaries that keep us safe. If we steal, we can spend time in jail. If we desire what others have and then act upon those desires to get the same things, we may find ourselves in debt up to our gills and with no real way out from under it. The emotions behind stealing and coveting are pretty powerful and can influence our actions. We need to understand God isn't just 'restricting' us from 'good things' - he is showing us we can have 'good things', but by the means and in the ways he delights in revealing to us. The fruit we need for our bellies might be provided if we offer to trade a little of our time doing a task the storekeeper needs done (like sweeping his walkway, shoveling the snow from his path, etc.). The shelter we call our own could be a rental, maybe even shared with another, but if he directs that course, it will be 'just right' for our needs.

God is interested in showing us how to live right - but he also wants us to understand the 'why' behind each right choice. God's promises are great - but we need the balance of living within the boundaries he describes, as well. These both affect our choices - choices affect our actions - actions determine our outcomes or consequences. Understanding comes as we spend time with him and really get to know him. When we get to know God and what his true character is, we understand the choices he asks us to make in a much deeper way. Just sayin!

Don't just entertain me

How wonderful to be wise, to understand things, to be able to analyze them and interpret them. Wisdom lights up a man’s face, softening its hardness. (Ecclesiastes 8:1 TLB)

If you have ever watched the expressions of discovery and intrigue on the face of a small child, you probably have close to what it must have been like for Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden as they explored each new creature, plant, and living thing. They must have had those moments of discovery that awed them, while almost overwhelming their soul with delight and wonder. To discover one has to be open to discovery. To uncover one must look. To gain understanding one must be open to seeing through different eyes at times. To unmask one must reveal a genuineness of character that encourages the removal of that which covers.

A good poker player is known for his ability to maintain what is referred to as a "poker face" - the ability to have the most amazing hand while never once 'declaring' that hand in the expressions of the face or eyes. I don't believe the discovery of truth actually lends itself well to the use of a 'poker face', though. The discovery of truth actually brings light to the eyes and a softening of the facial expression. The moment truth comes, the soul is lifted, changing the 'landscape' of not only our soul and spirit, but finding expression in the landscape of our face!

The Roman poet Virgil once wrote, "Consider what each soil will bear, and what each refuses." Notice the condition of the soil of the soul as understanding begins to come into the life of one ready to receive it. The soil is malleable, 'open' to receiving seed, making the seed 'part' of itself. The soil of the soul closed to understanding is quite the opposite - hard, closed off, almost repelling the seed as soon as it falls. The soul is often reflected in the landscape of the face, betraying the condition of the soil just beneath! The soul which has been prepared reveals itself in the softness of the face as that truth begins to be made part of the soil of one's life. There is something about truth understood that cannot be contained within the inner man - it must be revealed outwardly. Truth doesn't entertain - it sustains! Just sayin!

Probing

In any really good subject, one has only to probe deep enough to come to tears. (Edith Wharton) It takes probing to discover - for all "looking" is only as good as the ability to "see". You've heard the old adage that seeing is believing. Believing begins with catching sight of something - if even just a tiny fleck of truth is caught, it has the potential to influence all our actions. I don't think we realize the potential in one tiny thought, or the simplest budding of truth in our lives. Yet, if we really stop to consider that tiny thought, it can be the very thing that consumes or launches us into new heights.

The Scriptures say, “Our lives are like the grass of spring, and any glory we enjoy is like the beauty of a wildflower. The grass dries up and dies, and the flower falls to the ground. But the word of the Lord lasts forever.” And that word is the Good News that was told to you. (1 Peter 1:24-25 ERV)

Everyday is a chance to learn new truth, to embrace new beauty, to let go of the old and embrace the new. Yet, we often gloss over truth as though it were going to be there for us to "refer back to". If truth is not used, it can be lost in the muddle of all the other stuff we eventually are exposed to in this lifetime. God wants us to constantly return time and time again to his Word - not because he wants this to be a ritual, but because he knows truth needs to be renewed within us from time to time before we have a chance to cover it up with all this other input.

All other "truth" withers away - it doesn't give us lasting hope or credible faith. It is the truth which God gives through scripture and times alone with him that endures. It is renewed day after day - not because he is giving "new words" to add to the scripture, but because he is opening our eyes afresh to the truth contained within. This is even the case where we have embraced a truth already - for all truth can grow as our understanding is nurtured. 

How often and with what tenacity we "probe deeper" into the scriptures often determines the depth of the understanding we will obtain. We don't achieve understanding - it is obtained by the grace of God exposing little pieces of truth, one upon another, until we have grasped that truth fully. We cannot discount time alone with God, for it is the beginning of wisdom. Just sayin!

Perfect pitch

All Scripture is given by God. And all Scripture is useful for teaching and for showing people what is wrong in their lives. It is useful for correcting faults and teaching the right way to live. Using the Scriptures, those who serve God will be prepared and will have everything they need to do every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17 ERV)

While it is very important to remember all scripture is given to help us correct what is wrong in our lives, it is not to be used to beat people up with. The desire to use scripture to point out the faults of another is not what is intended here. The "pointing out" is really the job of the Holy Spirit - the helping another to learn part is where we come alongside and walk out that learning together.

Most of the time, we forget that learning is all about us walking out what we are given instruction to do. Having a hymnal doesn't equate to singing the songs correctly - especially if you don't actually read notes or understand rhythm or beat. If I have heard the hymn often enough, I may have a better chance of actually singing it according to how it is written, but the notes still mean very little to me. Why? I am not "schooled" in music.

There are a good number of biblical teachings I am not "schooled" in, but I am able to read them just like I could read the words of a song in the hymnal. The teachings don't have exactly the same meaning until someone helps me grasp the content of the teaching. This comes not only in instruction, but in example. When I hear the song and how it is supposed to be sung, I can "imitate" the song without really totally understanding a single note on the page. Sing that song often enough with me as it should be sung and I will eventually get a better understanding of the counting of beats and the meaning of the notes.

If you were to tell me to hit an F-sharp I probably couldn't even get close. If you were to hit that pitch yourself and then I were to "match" that pitch, I would eventually appreciate the tone of the note. What I needed was the example - the ability to hit the note was there all along, but I didn't appreciate the note as "matching" the F-sharp on the page until someone sung it for me. Christ was our first example of "perfect pitch". In turn, he showed his disciples how to imitate that "pitch". 

Now it is our turn to "match the pitch" in our own lives. We do this as a team - walking this learning and understanding together - following the examples we have been given. The more closely we listen to Christ, the more we are able to "hit the note" in our lives. Just sayin!

But I DO love you!

This is my prayer for you: that your love will grow more and more; that you will have knowledge and understanding with your love; that you will see the difference between what is important and what is not and choose what is important; that you will be pure and blameless for the coming of Christ... (Philippians 1:9-10 ERV)

What is important and what is not - - - isn't this the question of the ages? The answer to that question can actually differ from person to person, based upon the situation, people involved, and even the phases of the moon! "Important" to my 9 year old grandson is much different than what is "important" to my 13 year old grandson. One may want to sequester himself away deep inside a book while the other wants to be making the stinkiest bait he can concoct in order to catch those elusive catfish in the pond! To me both of these are "important" for the tasks at hand are as unique as the children who are pursuing them. When God looks at his kids, he sees what is important to each of us - and he works to meet those needs as long as those things won't harm us in some way. "Important" is to be defined by God's principles - if the thing isn't violating one of those principles, it is probably fine to be pursuing it, but we must balance all our "important pursuits" with what others around us also need.

Paul writes of a couple of these "balanced needs":

Love - notice that he speaks of this first. It is to be the primary thing we allow to be developed in our lives, for as long love is in the lead, all the rest of the actions that follow should be coming along in line with what God desires. It is to be a growing thing - not something we allow to be momentary or fleeting. It is to be consistently growing, evident in our actions - for all of love's actions speak much louder than love's words.

Knowledge and Understanding - to love, Paul reminds us to add knowledge and understanding. In fact, it is quite important that we grow in our knowledge of how God works, and what his purpose is for us. It is also important that we seek to understand each other, developing in our knowledge about what matters most to those around us. There is a young man next door who loves working on his car, which means revving the engine way more than one might think necessary and at times some might think a little intrusive to rest. This matters to him - so when the used suspension parts are hanging out at the side of the yard for a little longer than I might want, I just have to turn the cheek on that one. To love, we add knowledge and understanding - because both will help our love to grow.

The result - we will see the difference between what is important and what is not. Love opens our eyes, knowledge enhances our understanding, and our understanding creates a culture in which each of us may grow. What is important to us may pale in comparison to what another sees as important. We must remember to balance our responses to each other with the love that comes from Christ. Only then will we gain deeper understanding of how God wants us to reach a hurting world. Just sayin!

I need another example!

People who do not have God’s Spirit do not accept the things that come from his Spirit. They think these things are foolish. They cannot understand them, because they can only be understood with the Spirit’s help.  (1 Corinthians 2:14 ERV)

Have you ever stopped to consider why someone who hasn't asked Jesus into their life yet really doesn't understand even some of the simplest truths found in the scriptures? It is most likely because the Spirit of God is responsible for helping us to no longer look at these truths as foolish or nonsense. Until the Holy Spirit takes up "residence" in our lives, we might just find ourselves discounting God's values, truths, and expressions of loving care more than we realize. Think of a good old-fashioned radio for just a moment. As we turned the dial, some stations would come in kind of garbled, barely heard, and with a whole lot of static - we hear, but we don't always catch every word. As we fine tuned that dial a little more and pulled out the antenna, what happened? The station came in loud and clear! The Holy Spirit is like the fine tuning knob and antenna in our lives - he helps us to recognize truth, making it clearer and clearer to us until we finally understand it loud and clear.

If you struggle with a new truth God may be asking you to accept as fact, it isn't that you don't have the Spirit of God within you. It may just be that the eyes of our "flesh" haven't seen the truth in a way that makes sense yet. The good news about truth is that God goes to great lengths to helps us "get it". When my kids were coming up through school, there were times when I thought they should get some simple lesson they needed to understand in order to move on with their studies at school. They'd bring home loads of homework, all because they weren't "getting it". I found myself in a position of having to figure out how to help them "get it" somehow. Often I'd use some other illustration that would help them because they could connect that illustration with the abstract concept they were having to learn. Sometimes the Holy Spirit uses the simplest stuff to explain some of the hardest stuff for us to understand!

For a long time I thought some things in "church" were foolish. I didn't really see the point in what was being expected of me. The fact of the matter is that we often don't realize the value in the boundaries set by scripture until we go outside of those boundaries. We push up against the boundary and don't feel any great pain or discomfort as we do. That makes us a little more curious about what is on the other side of that boundary. When we push past the boundary and head further away from it, we most likely find the purpose for the boundary. Fences are built for a reason - either to keep something within the boundaries of the fence, or to keep something outside of those boundaries. God isn't just about rules, but when 'rules' are there for us, such as don't let the sun go down on your anger, we do well to listen to the Spirit of God reminding us of the 'rule'. Anger that isn't dealt with has a way of festering into full-blown bitterness and resentment - both very damaging emotions for US, not so much for the one we harbor those things against.

We need understanding - nothing is more futile than to make foolish decisions, dismissing truth just because it is hard to understand. We need the Holy Spirit within us to help us understand truth. If we don't understand truth, we need to ask for his help. We may not 'get it' with the first illustration he uses, but trust me on this - we will 'get it' because he is constantly working to connect the dots for us until we do get it! Just sayin!

Remembering what we learn

Zeal without knowledge may just lead to you acting a little too quickly.  Act too quickly and you may just charge ahead when it would have been wiser to stay behind.  Zeal is the energy we put into the pursuit of anything or anyone. Too much can sometimes get in the way because it messes with timing.  Too little can get be just as difficult to manage because it makes it difficult to be in the right place at the right time with the right resources in hand.  Whenever we move into areas where we do not have personal experience (first-hand knowledge), we might do so with great enthusiasm, but what usually happens?  We don't do very well the first time we try something, do we? Knowledge is designed to be shared, but until it becomes personal, it is of very little value to the one exposed to it.  Those folks who build Legos for a living and make all those instruction books included in the box of building blocks have first-hand experience.  Until I follow the specific diagrams and examples given, I don't have either.  I can only envision what my pile of blocks will look like, but if I plunge ahead without following those instructions to the letter, the instructions were of little value to me.  Sure, they were included in full color and nicely organized for my understanding - my impatience to get from a pile of blocks to a finished airplane will not produce an airplane even remotely resembling what the designer had in mind.  I need to apply the knowledge I am provided.

Enthusiasm without knowledge is not good; impatience will get you into trouble.  Some people ruin themselves by their own stupid actions and then blame the Lord.  Do yourself a favor and learn all you can; then remember what you learn and you will prosper.  (Proverbs 18:2-3, 8 GNT)

Unfortunately for most of us, we move into territory all the time where we have very little personal knowledge - creating many an opportunity for us to be exposed to things we'd never imagined possible in the journey.  Moving without knowledge might be considered faith to some, but even faith is based on some truth.  We have an element of knowledge we hang our hats on and then take the first steps forward.  Be aware - any steps taken without applying even the minimal knowledge we have been given may just lead to a whole lot more "exposure" than we'd like.  God wants us to have passion in our pursuit of right living, but he also wants us to exercise wisdom in that pursuit.

To wrestle with an unfamiliar enemy without any knowledge of that enemy would spell disaster for anyone attempting to do so.  People ruin their lives, not so much because they intend to, but because they come up against all kinds of unfamiliar enemies and have no idea how to deal with them.  We might call this foolishness in action, but in reality, we have all been there. What is unfortunate is when we blame God for our failure in these battles instead of seeing the folly in our having plunged ahead without any knowledge for the battle ahead.  Truth is, we are often given at least one or more warnings before heading into these battles - we just don't heed them.  If we'd learn to listen to the warning(s), we might just avoid the missteps.

God has placed a premium on some responses from us.  One of those responses is listening.  To those who listen, he speaks into their lives and helps them to grasp knowledge.  Those who are too intent on just handling things without the instructions, he speaks, but they don't listen.  Another response God values is that of integrity - being truthful about what we don't know and then seeking to gain that knowledge.  I often play Legos with the boys, but there are times when the instructions just don't even make sense to me!  It always amazes me when one of them will look quickly at the illustration, correct the blocks I put in the wrong order and then help me pick our the next one I need to put in place.  If I just plunged ahead, saying I understood the instructions even though I clearly did not, it would not exhibit integrity, would it?  In fact, the example I would set for the boys would be one of "faking it".  God doesn't place a premium on "faking it" - he places a premium on integrity.

As we have been studying the Proverbs, it appears there is evidence of a person actually valuing themselves by the actions and attitudes they exhibit. To acquire wisdom is to love oneself - value yourself enough to actually admit you don't know it all and then to quiet yourself long enough to actually "get" some knowledge which you might apply to the situation at hand.  People who cherish understanding will prosper - those who overlook it or think it is not important will know much unrest in their lives.  Most of the time we think scripture doesn't support the "love of self", but in truth, when we love ourselves enough to learn at the feet of Jesus, this type of "self love" is encouraged.  It shows we value the creation enough to sit at the feet of the Creator long enough for him to show us how this whole thing is supposed to work.

To acquire wisdom, one is determining to get it as their own - not content with second-hand knowledge, but desirous of getting it for yourself.  When we approach knowledge this way, God is delighted to give us exactly what we seek.  He gives us new or additional character traits and abilities.  We then hold these new truths as something we will cherish - hold dear, keep or cultivate with care and affection.  When we cherish knowledge (learning) - we are taking what we are given and then allowing it to get deep into our brains, enough so that it affects our emotions and bolsters our spirit.

Wisdom is the ability to discern inner qualities and relationships - some call this having insight.  The important thing we need to see is that this is something grown, not given.  It needs to be taken in, find deep root, and then it becomes useful to us.  Knowledge is superficial - wisdom has deep roots. Understanding is the ability to grasp even the hidden meaning which comes as a result of what we have come to learn over time.  I like the last verse we are studying today - we do ourselves a favor when we learn all we can.  Learning all we can depends upon all these things - right frame of mind, determined commitment of heart, and openness to act as we are instructed. Remembering what we learn is sometimes the biggest challenge!  Just sayin!

I need an illustration

Scripture defines happiness as finding wisdom and gaining understanding - "happy is the man..." who embraces both.  In seeking wisdom so as to find and in gaining understanding so as to not let it go, we are actually placing ourselves in a position to enjoy well-being and contentment - because we are in an atmosphere of good fellowship!  Wisdom and understanding affect our lives by bringing contentment - even in situations when it would otherwise be difficult to find it.  They also give us a sense of well-being because we can stand assured our course is pre-designed or pre-defined by someone who sees the big picture.  There is also the sense of being brought into a place of fellowship and intimacy with the one who does the designing and defining! These surely describe happiness better than most of the ways the world determines to define happiness for me!

Dear friend, guard Clear Thinking and Common Sense with your life; don’t for a minute lose sight of them.  They’ll keep your soul alive and well, they’ll keep you fit and attractive.  You’ll travel safely, you’ll neither tire nor trip.  You’ll take afternoon naps without a worry, you’ll enjoy a good night’s sleep.  No need to panic over alarms or surprises, or predictions that doomsday’s just around the corner, because God will be right there with you; he’ll keep you safe and sound.  (Proverbs 3:21-26 MSG)

We are frequently reminded in this Book of Proverbs of the "value" of wisdom - it profits us more than silver or gold.  Profit is a return on investment.  As many would say, you have to spend to see a yield on your investment.  You take a little risk with whatever it is you spend, but your hope is based on the probability of a good return.  There is an advantage to the investment - much like there is an advantage to seeking wisdom - our return is to both gain understanding and to truly enter into a place of contented happiness.  Some of the "returns" which comes with seeking wisdom are defined as eternal life, riches and honor, being guided down delightful paths, and satisfaction as we pass over these paths.  

Our part is to embrace wisdom - to allow it to be an enclosure for our hearts and minds.  An embrace is something which encloses something within its grasp.  When we seek wisdom so as to embrace it, we are desiring to take it in without questioning, in a ready manner. One sign we are embracing wisdom is the evidence of it in our daily lives.  When there is a lack of contentment, maybe we just need to seek a little more of wisdom.  Where there is a lack of direction, maybe we need to sit in the embrace of wisdom a little longer. There are a lot of things poised to tear us away from wisdom's embrace, so we must guard our time in her clutches, for this is precious time indeed.  Wisdom is really not a "thing" as much as it is a person - Jesus.  We are to seek him so as to embrace him tightly.  We are to desire his embrace above all others - no other satisfying in quite the same manner.  

As we travel down this path we call "life", we have a lot of choices - good planning and insight help us to make the right choices when the paths seem to split off, affording more than one way to travel.  Good planning sets out a course before the first leg of the journey is even undertaken.  An architect spends a great deal of time preparing the blueprints of the building long before the ground is even broken to begin the building!  There is forethought and wisdom in the choice of placement of the building - even the selection of the lot on which it is built will affect the architect's choices about how the building will be "postured".  Why would we think we could just build our lives apart from the divine design already "drafted" for them?  We need to plans he prepares in order to have the construction turn out as designed!

Wisdom looks to the master architect (Jesus) to provide the design - defining the "posture" of our lives.  Insight gives us the actually "see" the design as it unfolds.  Insight also describes the investigation of what is below the surface - for understanding what lays beneath often determines the stability of the structure.  Insight gives us perspective - wisdom gives us the design. Architectural plans come to life when an architectural illustrator takes the images of the designer and displays them in graphic detail as they will be when finished.  What I cannot see in the "plans", I can gain insight into when I see the illustration before me.  I may not see the intricacies of the design with the illustration, but it gives me a perspective to see how the pieces fit. I still need the plans - but the illustration helps me know where I am headed.

Truth be told, we sometimes are a little guilty of veering from the plans, or even working outside of what we have insight into.  We want to take short cuts with the "building" of our lives.  I don't know about you, but just about every short cut I have attempted to take when I am constructing something costs me something else!  Try to speed up the process by using a drill to screw in the screw instead of a screwdriver and I might just strip the head of the screw, drive it in too fast and split the wood, etc.  The "time" it takes to actually take "all" the steps, in the right order, will save us greater heartache down the road.  These steps are predefined by the one who holds the plans. Insight into his plans helps us see clearly the need for each step.  Just sayin!

I have lots of tools!

If you have ever taken to leaning on your own understanding, you might have just limited yourself to whatever is in your "toolbox"!  I like to do little odd jobs around the house, tackling some of the projects myself - some call it being a "do-it-yourself" kind of thing.  Yet, there are some tasks which are just outside of my "scope" because I neither possess the knowledge to perform the task, nor the tools to make the job turn out well.  If you have ever tried to hammer in a nail with the heel of your shoe, you know exactly what I mean!  You might get it into drywall, but if you hit a stud behind that drywall, it isn't going anywhere!  I have come to recognize my "toolbox" and my "skill level" are not always aligned either.  I possess a few more power tools than I really am proficient at using!  I dabble with them, but that circular saw still frightens me!  I imagine severed finger tips and it just gives me the willies!  In a spiritual sense, we kind of limit ourselves whenever we only focus on the "tools" we have in our toolbox, and whenever we rely upon just our own abilities to get the job done, we often don't tap into the expertise which would make the "job" a little easier!

Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own.  Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track.  Don’t assume that you know it all.  Run to God! Run from evil!  Your body will glow with health, your very bones will vibrate with life!  Honor God with everything you own; give him the first and the best.  Your barns will burst, your wine vats will brim over.  But don’t, dear friend, resent God’s discipline; don’t sulk under his loving correction.  It’s the child he loves that God corrects; a father’s delight is behind all this.  (Proverbs 3:5-12 MSG)

If you didn't get the first line of this passage, read it again - for to understand trust, we have to realize it is a "heart thing".  Trust involves more than just my mental understanding - just like owning a tool does not make me proficient in its use.  Trust also involves my emotional response - I have to learn to use the tools I am given.  The mental understanding part is our coming to a place where we know and believe in the character of the one we are placing our trust in.  

I have that circular saw - I know it cuts wood much better than my trusty hand saw, and I know it has power I don't possess which can help me get the job done quickly.  I have seen others use the same tool, with seeming ease and practiced skill.  They have this ability to use it because they have done more than just develop a mental understanding of the tool's abilities and strengths - they have made the emotional investment! When I don my goggles, clamp down my wood, place my saw guide securely in position, remove my fingers from a position of danger - I move from mental understanding of the tool to the emotional response of actually hitting the "on" button and allowing that blade to whirl around at speeds which allow it to slice through the wood like butter!  

When we take the step from just mental understanding into the place of emotional response, we "turn on" the power we lack on our own.  We are putting ourselves "out there" in a position of trusting in what we know about God.  His character is learned through our mental understanding - what we read about him, what others tell us, and what we have come to experience first hand.  Our trust moves us from just knowing into a place of allowing his action on our behalf to actually give us an ability we don't possess on our own.  We are no longer focusing on our own ability, strength, or confidence to get the job done - we are allowing him to "power on" his!  Our part is to trust with everything we are - both the mental and emotional!  

A word of caution here - we aren't going to get very far if all we depend upon is our own understanding.  We can come into understanding of truths about God and his ways, but they are not going to become effectual in our lives until we cross over from the place of mental understanding into emotional response.  Our understanding is always subject to being affected by the circumstances - we can misread the situation and be way off base, as a result. When I fear the tool I am given, I begin to avoid its use.  The job is harder when I don't use the tools I am given.  As long as I fear losing a finger, I will never use the tool!

Our understanding is also affected by the people involved in a circumstance and the past experiences we have had in similar situations.  I am a nurse, so I have seen the severed fingers!  I have seen the nails from nail guns put through toes!  I could allow these past experiences to keep me away from the use of these "tools" myself.  I have also seen some folks pretty sloppy in their own use of the their tools - so if I follow in their footsteps, I could actually end up with the injuries I so greatly fear!  

We are to seek his will in all we do and he promises to guide our paths.  A seeker has several character traits - a passion for that which they pursue; a desire to discover new things about the one they seek; a lack of fear of making requests that will help to uncover what may have previously been hidden; and an unwillingness to give up short of finding what they seek!  If we want to get to know the tools in our toolbox, we have to seek to understand them, then take them out, trusting the one who has given them to us to guide us in their use.

So, not sure what tools you are struggling with using today, but just know this - a tool in your toolbox is of no real use until it is the right tool for the job. When it is the "right" tool for the job, to settle for any other tool is really kind of counter-productive and makes the job a whole lot more difficult to accomplish.  We have to get to know the tools we have been given, then be willing to take them out, using them where they are most needed!  Just sayin!

Walking the line

Do I want to truthfully walk a straight path?  This is a tough question for each of us to answer.  We often give lip-service to our intention to walk a straight path, making upright decisions, and connecting within wholesome relationships, but then we find ourselves gravitating toward the next thing which pulls us away.  Lip service is not really going to get us closer to our goal, is it?  Two things which are key to moving beyond lip service in our walk are wisdom and understanding.  The more we embrace the wisdom God provides and the understanding which unfolds when we draw close to him, the chances are we will do more than just declare our intent to walk uprightly - we will begin to actually take steps toward living righteously.

So now you can pick out what’s true and fair, find all the good trails!  Lady Wisdom will be your close friend, and Brother Knowledge your pleasant companion.  Good Sense will scout ahead for danger, Insight will keep an eye out for you...So—join the company of good men and women,  keep your feet on the tried-and-true paths.  It’s the men who walk straight who will settle this land, the women with integrity who will last here.  The corrupt will lose their lives; the dishonest will be gone for good.  (Proverbs 2:9-10, 20-22 MSG)

If you have ever been the recipient of the results of "poor planning" you know how frustrating this can be and just how much work it is to "clean up" what was not planned well.  I have not only been the recipient, but I have been the one doing the planning!  Double-whammy!  I think this is maybe the kind of "bummer" God wanted us to avoid when he reminds us of the wisdom or value of wise counsel.  Wise planning is not always the result of "careful planning". We can be very "careful" and still miss the mark!  

Sometimes we just need the counsel which is outside of our minds and hearts to confirm or dissuade us from the planning we have in mind.  First we listen to God, but then he also provides wise counsel because he knows we sometimes need those "sounding boards" to help us with the planning of our next steps.  Understanding speaks to the application of knowledge.  Knowledge comes from experience.  This is why wise counsel is so important - there are a whole lot of opportunities to allow the experience of another to steer us clear of the mistakes they have already made!

Wisdom and understanding do a lot to "steer" us away from one thing and toward another.  This is very important when we consider relationship decisions, for the wrong relationship decisions can scar us for life.  We need to be aware of the "true heart" of another - this can only come as we allow wisdom and understanding to be our guide in relationship, not the fickleness of our heart!  

For many of us, this thing we call "wisdom" and "understanding" is fleeting. Try as we might, we just don't seem to grab hold of wisdom and / or understanding quite as easily as we'd like.  We are left in some pretty awkward places because we did not plan well, nor did we swallow our pride enough to seek out the counsel of another to help us see our actions from a different perspective.  Let me just say this - wisdom and understanding are "rehearsed" - they are learned through revisiting the things we have learned over-and-over again.  

It is not the revisiting of the wrong decisions which will magically make us wise, but in revisiting them, we often see the place where we took the misstep.  Poor decisions on my part have often become the very thing I seek the wisdom of another in order to learn from those missteps.  I may have neglected to seek their counsel BEFORE I made the misstep, but I sure don't want to repeat those bad choices, so I will seek counsel before I take those same steps again!  This is wisdom!

We rehearse or revisit a lot of things in our lives, often neglecting the learning God would have us to grasp.  We focus on what did not work (the outcome), rather than on what steps we took which produced the bad outcome.  It is like looking at the tree and not remembering it has big roots! We sometimes are guilty of not giving God's counsel and teaching more than a "cursory" rehearsal in the face of our failures, and then we wonder why we fail again.  Maybe it is because we "rehearse" the wrong stuff!

God's counsel to us is to "store up" his counsel in our hearts - not so we become Bible verse spouting Christians at every turn, but because his "stored up" counsel can actually become the "wisdom" we consult before we step out. To store up means to get a good stock of something which is laid up "against the future" needs you might have.  You don't stock the pantry because all those cans look pretty in there.  You stock it because you will actually access those colorful cans of vegetables and sauces, using them the prepare what will become your next "nourishing meal".  God's counsel is "stocked" in our "life pantry" - not for good looks, but for our use.

I can add one additional point before closing - wisdom and understanding operate best when loyalty is maintained.  If you have ever been betrayed by someone you thought was loyal to you, you know how their betrayal made you feel.  You are "gut-kicked", right?  We have been given many resources at our fingertips - wisdom and understanding are available for the one who seeks with an intent heart.  Remaining loyal to the one who calls us into wisdom and expands our understanding is all God asks.  As we are "faithful" to him, he helps us be "faith-filled".  He brings us into places of understanding and relationships of wisdom because he desires for our hearts to be safe.  Our allegiance often determines how well we will enter into understanding and how quickly we will embrace wisdom.  Just sayin!