I can be easily distracted, rabbit, as I walk
through life. Some of it has to do with my ADHD tendencies. I have spent my
adult life trying to focus. Like the character in the movie “Up” my life is
filled with interesting distractions. That dog gets pulled aside in an instant
by the smallest things. Sound familiar?
Our text today validates our universal tendency
to get distracted from important things. The writer tells his reader to keep
wisdom right in the center of his view. Just like texting and driving is
dangerous, so navigating life without keeping wisdom as our anchor point is
dangerous. We need to have it always right at our finger tips, right in our
immediate surroundings. He uses the image of the necklace again.
So how long do I have to be distracted in
order to get in trouble? With texting it only takes a second to make a fatal
mistake. The proverb doesn’t say how long. It does say that keeping wisdom
central will keep us safe. We won’t need to worry about enemies coming at
night. Wisdom will give us warning so that we won’t be taken by surprise.
These sound like some pretty remarkable
benefits. Why would anyone not listen to wisdom? Well, to be quite honest,
because we don’t get to do what we want at the moment we want to. Wisdom will
get in the way of our freedom, freedom to make stupid choices! We won’t be able
to go our own way.
As Westerners, we value freedom above even
making good decisions. If a decision inhibits freedom, we would rather make the
wrong choice. And as a result, we are pretty messed up as a culture. We allow
the porn industry access into every mobile device because we don’t want to
impinge on the rights of those who exploit women and children. Porn has no
redeeming value, but we stand side by side with the greatest perversions in the
name of freedom.
In the name of freedom we beat up marriage
as an institution because we are unwilling to declare that single parenting is
not as healthy as having a mom and dad. So as a result we have 70% single
parent births in some large sectors of our population leading to poverty that
travels through generations. All this because we aren’t willing to hold men and
women responsible for their sexual activities. Freedom!
Wisdom will guide if we are willing to heed
its voice of instruction.