Proverbs 14:33
You
can’t hide from wisdom. Even if you ignore it, it will be there. It is not that
people don’t know the right thing to do, it is that they choose to do the wrong
thing instead.
I
have an old pair of slippers. The insides don’t have much of that fuzzy comfort
left. They are a bit worn out on the outside. The leather laces have lost their
ability to stay tied, so I cut them off so I wouldn’t trip over them. They aren’t
much to look at, or even wear, but they are my slippers. Every evening I put
them on to keep my toes warmer than the rest of me.
You
might say that I should just throw them out and buy a new pair, since they were
only about ten dollars in the first place, but why. I am comfortable in them,
and they haven’t said much in their defense. They don’t seem to mind their current
state.
The
more we sit with wisdom the more comfortable we become with it. At first it
seems a little strange. We have to choose to act differently in response to
wisdom’s prompting. We have to shift direction in order for wisdom to become
the preferred course of action. That shift can take time and effort. But once
the shift is made, we are at home with wisdom. It is what makes sense in every
situation.
But
people can choose to ignore wisdom. In Syria there can be no winner for
freedom. The current leader is evil, and the opposition forces are Al Qaeda. No
matter who wins or loses, freedom has lost. The Arab Spring has turned into a
nightmare.
A
recent poll of Muslim people around the world found that suicide bombing is
acceptable in certain circumstances. About twenty five percent of Muslims in
the United States agreed. I am no math major, but if the percentages are true,
then abound 250 million people around the world are willing to kill us to
advance Islam. That is no “few thousand” radicals. Wisdom would say “We have a
problem, Houston.”
There
were twice as many record cold temperatures this summer as there were warm
temperatures. The Arctic had the shortest number of days over freezing on
record. Global temperatures have not increased over the last almost twenty
years.
Wisdom
is all around us, but we must listen to it. We need to listen even if it
contradicts our firmly held beliefs, even if it is politically incorrect to do
so.