Choices and consequences
Every day we're reading or listening to part of the Bible together and sharing thoughts with you. Today Mal Calladine gets into our fourth monthly chunk of ‘Practical Proverbs’… nuggets of knowledge that have loads of life application.
What did I like about today’s passage?
I think I need to start with what I didn’t like – not about the reading, but about me! This year these daily readings have dropped into your inbox everyday at midnight; & after 4 months this is the first one that is late! And it was completely my fault. I’d left one window at the start of this weekend to get these reflections off to Bern; but on Saturday morning whilst still in bed our doorbell rang. It was a situation that distracted me through to the afternoon, and by then my morning’s commitment had completely flown out of my head! It was only being reminded in the online church service today that made me realise I’d dropped the ball – but hopefully I can pick it up again now! I’m relieved that 11v2 says that ‘with humility comes wisdom!’
True to the design of Proverbs, it’s hard to do an overview of 3 chapters, when (as we looked at in January’s first 3 chapters), these are designed to be short, pithy, sticky, memorable one-liners; that have the goal of gaining wisdom & instruction (1:1-7). So each little verse couplet is like a little discipleship piece of chewing gum - a Wrigleys Extra of chewy freshness that has enough flavour to consider over my life for a while to get everything out of it. And as I do, it improves my oral health! However, one piece is normally enough for a few hours. I could not chew a pack of 10 all at once. Two is normally enough to give me jaw ache!
So I’d encourage you to focus on the one or two verses that most get your attention and chew on their application for a while. My reflection on each couplet is that nearly every single one is about choice and consequences. And in how those choices are made, people are broadly drawn into two camps: the wise, diligent, kind-hearted and righteous, and the foolish, lazy, ruthless and wicked. Each couplet defines what those two worldviews do (normally as opposing actions) and the consequences they then have. The wise who bring joy and the fool who brings grief to their parents (10:1); lips that speak either what is ‘fitting’, or ‘perverse’ (10:32); marriage that is either our crown, or our bones decay (12:4); the abundance that comes from hard work, and the fruitlessness of the fantasist (12:11). The prudent stay quiet; fools blurt out. Diligent rule; lazy become slaves. And one of my favourite verses that is in these chapters: givers gain more and get refreshed, whilst withholders come to poverty (11:24-25).
I believe in passionately (and need!) the grace of God where I make mistakes and am far less than perfect; but all this points to our active choices really matter. Particularly under pressure, we will see their consequences.
What did it show me about Father God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit?
Reading through these repeated dichotomies reminded me of one of my favourite theologian / philosophers Søren Kierkegaard who points me to deep truths of God, and not just because he’s Danish – a land I’ve fallen in love with, as I fell for my half Danish / half Scottish heritage wife! It’s his articulation of something I see a lot in scripture – that light and dark are influencers on each of us; all of our challenge is which of those we choose to focus on, feed and respond to.
Kierkegaard gives priority to concrete human reality over abstract concepts and highlights the importance of personal choice and commitment. He’s the guy who introduced the idea of ‘leap of faith’ - pre Indiana Jones - and the need for each of us to connect with Jesus (our subjective reality), not just agree to objective truths. His psychological work explored the emotions and feelings of people when faced with life choices. He wrote: "Science and scholarship want to teach that becoming objective is the way. Christianity teaches that the way is to become subjective, to become a subject." As one commentator wrote of him: “While scientists learn about the world by observation, Kierkegaard emphatically denied that observation alone would reveal the inner workings of the world of the spirit.”
As these Proverbs re-enforce: it’s about our action and response. It’s about how we play the game, not watch it.
As Kierkegaard wrote: “the best defence against hypocrisy is love.”
What am I going to do differently as a result?
I want to reflect more on the couplets that most got my attention today and consider further what actions of love they search out in me to do. I then need to discuss my planned responses with those I live with. I’m particularly wanting to dig deeper the reminder of those ‘giving’ verses (11:24-25) and where, in this unique and difficult season, we’ll still be judged by our actions and responses (especially I expect as the world calms down afterwards, we’ll review who stepped up to the plate and who disengaged). Buoyed by encouragement that sacrificial giving has worked in the past, where at this time do we need to do more than ever?
Who am I going to share this with?
I’m going to remind my wife that she is my crown (12:4), contact a vet friend to affirm them that their caring for animals is considered righteous (12:10) and, with my wife Chriscelle, start a conversation around giving more in this weird season.
And I’m going to ask my family on our FamBam Zoom call this afternoon, where do we most need to be a ‘non-anxious presence’ at the moment? Who should we each be sending a kind word to cheer them up? (12:25)