Read
Better To Be Wise
13Once I saw what people really think of wisdom, and it made an impression on me. 14It happened when a powerful ruler surrounded and attacked a small city where only a few people lived. The enemy army was getting ready to break through the city walls. 15But the city was saved by the wisdom of a poor person who was soon forgotten. 16So I decided that wisdom is better than strength. Yet if you are poor, no one pays any attention to you, no matter how smart you are.
17Words of wisdom spoken softly
make much more sense
than the shouts of a ruler
to a crowd of fools.
18Wisdom is more powerful
than weapons,
yet one mistake can destroy
all the good you have done.
1A few dead flies in perfume
make all of it stink,
and a little foolishness
outweighs a lot of wisdom.
2Sensible thoughts lead you
to do right;
foolish thoughts lead you
to do wrong.
3Fools show their stupidity
by the way they live;
it's easy to see
they have no sense.
4Don't give up your job
when your boss gets angry.
If you stay calm,
you'll be forgiven.
5Rulers do some things that are terribly unfair: 6They honor fools, but dishonor the rich; 7they let slaves ride on horses, but force slave owners to walk.
8 If you dig a pit,
you might fall in;
if you break down a wall,
a snake might bite you.
9You could even get hurt
by chiseling a stone
or chopping a log.
Reflect
We live in a culture that worships good advertising, where the quality of anything matters less than how it is presented to its consumers. When good marketing becomes the highest virtue, everything becomes simply a product to be sold, including our own identities. You can be good and wise and virtuous but if you can’t play the game, can’t sell yourself, you will be outshouted and outshone by those who can. Your skill at self-promotion has come to mean more than any actual virtue you may possess. It doesn’t matter if you are good if you can’t look good.
This is the conclusion our society has come to: that to succeed, or even survive, we must “play the game”. But our lives are not a game to God. He created us to be ourselves, and he sees through the make-up and the lighting to the person within. God is not interested in image or results. He is only interested in our hearts, in why we get up in the morning and try to live one way, and not another.
This is the leap our faith demands of us: that we reject the lie that promises success, and live instead as Jesus did, willing to be made low, to be scorned and humiliated, rather than deny his Father. To live as though it were better to be ruined, wounded, and killed with God than to live in wealth and pleasure apart from him.
The world demands we invent a version of ourselves that is strong, smart and beautiful enough to defeat our adversaries. God asks that we humble ourselves enough to allow him to make us into the people he intended us to be. Only God can give us what we long for most: to become our true selves.
Respond
Dear God, Only you know who we truly are, and who we can be. Forgive us for pretending to be what we are not, and make us who we should be. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Mike Bonikowsky
Mike Bonikowsky began looking at books as soon as he could sit up. Eventually he learned to read them, and has not been able to stop. One day he realized that people wrote the words in the books, and he began to write his own. He has not been able to stop that either. He lives with his wife and child in Melancthon Township, Ontario, where he writes his words in the basement.