Proverbs 3:5 – A Wasted ‘Best’?

Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Proverbs‬ ‭3‬:‭5‬ NLT

I’ve been fortunate lately to spend small amounts of time with several leaders of my church. We’ve got many great things going on, but I’ve found myself feeling drained from travel and other things, creating a nagging feeling that I wasted their time and my input has fallen well short of giving my best in those conversations.

And this worries me. The work of the church is the hope of the world. Literally, lives and eternity hang in the balance as church leaders gather input and use it to inform their decisions. So as this weighed on me this morning, I got a strong indication why: I’ve been trying to do this myself. I’ve been trying to give these leaders my best, not giving them the best God can offer through me.

In whatever you’re doing, you need to give your best. And that’s hard enough. But you have to be intentional, creating a schedule that allows you to be at your personal best when it’s time for God to tap in and use you.

I’ve got to make some changes, starting with more consistent prayer, scripture, and rest. I hope you will pray for those changes for me. I would be delighted if you shared your list so I can pray for you also.

Proverbs 6:8 – Summer Ends?!?

They labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter. Proverbs‬ ‭6‬:‭8‬ NLT

Image courtesy Slate

For the northern hemisphere, today is the last day of summer. We have to acknowledge the chill in the air, the shortening of the days, all the signs we’ve worked to ignore. (I wish it were like that and the pumpkin flavored everything would’ve waited until tomorrow!)

I thought I would take a look at when God references summer in the bible, and saw pretty much one theme: harvest. Plant life references the coming of the season. Harvest and the following winter, which ought to have been prepared for, follow.

I think there’s only one thing we need to take from biblical references to summer: this life is the summer. We are to spend this life preparing for the next, tending to the Father’s fields. We are to diligently look for signs from others of their openness to God’s truth and, when we see this openness, to work diligently in the Lord’s fields cultivating this potential new brother or sister.

It may be the last day of summer for half the planet, but it’s always summer in the our Father’s fields. Work diligently everyday to bring His salvation to those showing signs of thirsting for it.

Proverbs 11:24 – Givers and Havers

Give freely and become more wealthy; be stingy and lose everything. Proverbs‬ ‭11‬:‭24‬ NLT

Give, a verb, usually describing something we believe we should do but don’t.

Ok, maybe that’s a spotty definition, but I think it encompasses how many people who call themselves Christians feel about giving. We live in a culture glorifying more. And we’re taught when were young that we only have what we have. If we give it away, we won’t have it anymore. That having some is better than none, that more is better than less.

Time to retrain. Look at giving this way: you can’t give what you don’t have. If you have, then you’re qualified to give. Giving doesn’t just mean money, and neither does having. You can’t give grace, caring, compassion, or understanding unless you already have those things.

We’re uniquely equipped by God to give things to the world which the world can never give us. And we can’t allow the world’s view of giving and having to separate us from God’s intention to give away everything he’s given us.

Proverbs 23:26 – The Eyes Have It

O my son, give me your heart. May your eyes take delight in following my ways. Proverbs 23:26 NLT

Brandon Heath, Give Me Your Eyes – http://youtu.be/P5AkNqLuVgY

“Admiration reveals the DNA of the soul. Who you are is what you most admire.”

Joseph Grenny

Throughout the bible, even the weird stuff in the OT, God makes promises we can rely on today. It’s particularly telling of those He makes over and over again, restating them as questions to be pondered, simple statements inserted in a dialogue, or the oft-missed story-behind-the-story. For these statements, you can almost always find a parallel that cuts to the core of the issue. The perpetual struggle between what your flesh wants and what your soul wants is one of these.

“What do you do when your body wants what your heart knows is wrong?”

Tindall Baldwin, Popular

The only way to want what God wants is to see what God sees. The only way to see what God sees is to give God your heart. When God has your heart, He has your eyes. Not only will you see what God sees, the work to be done, but you will also see what God sees in you, your ability to do something about it.

Give God your eyes, see what He has put in front of you, and embrace the tools He has given you to do something about it.

Proverbs 27:17 – Touch Point

As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. Proverbs 27:17 NLT

So, you’ve probably noticed I try to stay away from the verses you’ve heard a thousand times before, like this one. There’s a reason you’ve heard many of them before. They build faith, give love and encouragement, help you to focus more on God.

For me, nothing fills my faith up more than engaging deeply with other believers. I was able to spend tonight with two guys I rarely get to see in person. Both of them being ministry leaders, we talked shop.

Nothing fills me so fully as seeing that the ministries I have a chance to see a bit of the behind-the-scenes view of are oozing love from every touch point.

The life of a Christ follower is just that, a touch point. How many people are you going to touch today? Count everyone who will see you. It’s probably an enormous number compared to what you think of as your sphere of influence.

Today, make your life a touch point for Christ. Fill yourself now so full with God’s love so that it has nowhere to go but out into the people you touch today.

Proverbs 26:11 – Lunch with Mr. T and King Solomon

As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly. Proverbs 26:11 NIV

My name is Chris, and I am a fool.

Not only because I lived this verse for several years, but also because the writing on the topic can’t actually help you.

My life was that of the fool. I repeated the same mistakes over and over again, with alcohol, money, relationships. I thought I was learning the whole time! I just didn’t bother to think that managing the stupidity of the situation to slightly better outcomes as time went on was a complete waste. The only thing I really learned was to increasing ignore healthy warnings.

Even when I wasn’t acting like a fool, I erred to the worse side, to that of the mocker Solomon describes throughout his writings. If you were unfortunate enough to have had a conversation with me, we likely would have disagreed about something (typically trivial) and I would have vehemently attacked you to prove my point and to thoroughly convince you of my “superior” intellect. I frequently said the one thing only a mocker would dare say, “I don’t care, they’re an idiot.”

If you wanted to ask me what the most important thing I’ve learned in the last decade is, I would say nothing about relationships or raising kids, and nothing about keeping a job and getting ahead at work. I would say I learned how valuable grace is to a fool like me. I would tell you how, though I am now aware of it, pitiful my life was. I would certainly tell you to never give up on someone you love, because I might never have learned anything if my wife had given up on me.

If you’ve been a fool, this probably resonates with you but doesn’t really help you. I can’t help you fight your battles with your own foolishness; I can only assure you I am right there with you still fighting mine. The battles differ, but the foolishness is the same. If foolishness hasn’t been a problem for you, this won’t really help you either. If you’ve never been the fool, maybe it brought you some insight into our struggle. If you are a fool, though, now, you’ll have gotten the least out of this.

If you didn’t get anything out of this, I’m sorry. Mr. T and I will be praying for you.

<Image courtesy Meme Generator

Judges 21:25 – The Right Aphorism

In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes. Judges 21:25 NLT

I have a good friend who has consistently over the years recommended to me that I follow The Art of Manliness. So earlier this year, a post caught my eye because it was presented with this image:

Image courtesy The Art of Manliness

It’s an interesting take though, just between you and me, I’m not sure my unsophisticated self had heard the word “aphorism” before. So I hada make sure I whatnt imagining things. Seems just like a proverb. Off to google! While Google was wise enough (I s’pose) not to wager a guess, they found me several folk who took a shot (some mighty fine and some mighty poor). For all the binge learning I could do on the topic, I can’t say I’m much wiser as to the difference between the former and the latter.

Also, I don’t really think it matters whether you use either of these terms to describe your nuggets of wisdom you embrace and share. I think the source matters much more so. And when Solomon said, among other things, “There is a way that seems right to man,” I don’t think he was stretching his God-given wisdom so much as quoting what had become an aphorism from Israel’s past.

If you don’t know where I’m going, this is going to be a PSA to read your bible. Know why Solomon didn’t have to be the wisest man who ever lived to come up with that gem? His rule as king was practically a direct result of Israel’s history in that respect. It was the common knowledge of all the people. They didn’t say, “Hey, remember that time the Levite and…and…and a hoard of angry Benjamites, and…and…and…and…and we killed an entire village of our own people and…” They would simply acknowledge there is a way that seems right to man and it leads to death.

If you haven’t read the final story in Judges, I can’t begin to describe all of the evil that God’s chosen people inflicted on themselves, voluntarily, when they chose to do what was right in their own eyes. But you don’t really need that story do you? Your story may not have the blood and death of this one, but we all have some story where we knew better than God. And if you don’t think you do yet, I think the aphorism for that is:

Image courtesy The Art of Manliness

When you pray today, ask God to show you a blind spot. Ask God where you’ve been ignoring His instructions for making your life better. Maybe it’s a speck in the corner, maybe it’s a room full of still-smoldering debris. Ask for His help in clearing the mess away.

Proverbs 9:8 | John 15:18 – Haters Gonna Hate

Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you. Proverbs 9:8 NIV

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. John 15:18 NIV

Religion is all about two things: rules and ladders. Religion tell you that you start out on level 0 and that following the rules will let you move up the ladder. Religion is weird. Seriously, in some religions, you can bribe the god(s) with sacrifices to harm your enemies. Seriously. Religion leaves you guessing whether the deity has more tally marks in your “Pros” list than your “Cons” list. Religion lets you choose whether you are plaything of the god(s) or your service is necessary to the god(s).

Jesus wasn’t a big fan of religion. He came to cure religion. True, God established a ladder with the Ten Commandments, but the purpose of God’s ladder was clear. The first rung, the one you has to climb to get to level 1…

“You shall have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:3 NIV

…was to let you know you would never be able to climb the ladder. No matter how many people you didn’t (literally) kill and how many people you didn’t (literally) sleep with, it didn’t matter, because you couldn’t get past level 0. And that wasn’t enough, so Jesus had to come explain to us that all that legalism was missing the point. Remember when you were staring daggers at the back of your boss’ head fantasizing about him not making it to work tomorrow? Jesus said you might as well have since it’s all the same sin to Him.

We do have some measuring sticks that let us know if we’re following Jesus lead, chief among them the message in these verses. Those wise to Jesus message will love you when you love them, even with tough love. But no matter how gently loving you are to others, they will hate you. They have soaked up to much of the world.

When you pray today, think of someone who has hated you. Pray that God will soften their heart. Pray that God will put one of His followers in their path and they will boldly share the Good News.

Don’t leave your bold love at home this weekend. God wants to put someone with a softened heart in front of you.

Proverbs 4:23 – It’s a Verb

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Proverbs 4:23 NIV

You read some scriptures when you’re younger, and ask, “uh, yeah, what???” Maybe you get the feeling that it’s important, but you don’t get why. But there are a lot of those, so you keep moving without letting it impact you.

And then life comes. Then more. And a bit more. And then you come back to a scripture you didn’t get before, and…

BOOM!

You get it this time, because it gets you. It reflects real life. To one degree or another, this verse has that impact for everyone. Why? You can’t learn to guard your heart, at least adequately, until you’ve felt the necessary degree of pain to establish a need to guard it.

What is as important about this proverb, though, is what Solomon didn’t say as what we did. Solomon said to guard your heart. He verbed it, he didn’t noun it (sidebar: I just verbed the noun “noun”…you’re welcome). What’s the difference? See for yourself:

The last bullet of each provides the best comparison, the most stark contrast, the most light between what Solomon could have meant (i.e. “Lock it down, warden.”) and what he actually meant (i.e. “Take the necessary precautions.”).

Jesus gave us a clear mission, to go into all nations and make disciples, and a game plan, love one another as I have loved you, that’s undefeated going on two millennia. You can’t bring people to the God who is love without being able to open your heart to show His love.

As you pray today, pray for healing. Pray for strong stitches over the wounds that taught you to guard your heart. And pray for strength to test those stitches as you open your heart to share God with the people God puts in front of you today.

P.S. ICYMI this verse is how I opened my story in Mastering Your Story, part 2. Check it out here.