Rumble Bars

Proverbs 2:6-11

 I graduated from Seminary in December of 1982. Patti and I were excited to be done with school and wanted to be back in Nebraska to celebrate Christmas with family. Like most graduate students, money was tight. We had enough to buy gas and some food but that was about it. We certainly did not have money for hotels along the way. The plan was to push from southern California to Lincoln with no hotel stops. 

For a while the excitement of heading home kept us energized and awake. But eventually the long drive took its toll. Patti was not feeling well so I was doing all the driving in a two door Subaru about the size of a matchbox car. 

We had taken a southern route to avoid some winter weather. I was fighting to stay awake somewhere in Oklahoma when suddenly the road became extremely bumpy. I had dozed off and we were on the shoulder headed towards the ditch. Thankfully, I was able to regain control and get us back on the highway without doing any damage to us or the car. Let’s just say at that moment I was wide awake.

These days a lot of roads have rumble bars to alert drivers when they are drifting off the road. They may be annoying, but they are there for our protection. You might say part of living skillfully in turbulent times requires getting the rumble bars in place. No one wants to go into the ditch. So how do we avoid it?

Last week we talked about being diligent to listen and learn—to go after wisdom like it’s a hidden treasure. Why? For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. As a result, we store up sound wisdom. We stockpile what we need, guarding the paths of justice. In other words, we get what we need ahead of time to warn us when we are drifting off the path. 

Listening and learning will give us what we need to discern righteousness and justice and equity and every good course. We talked about the importance of righteousness, justice, and equity in week 2. Listening and learning is how they become part of you. Wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. You will be dialed into what is right and fair. Your moral compass will be activated to stay between the lines to create flourishing for yourself and others.

Remember the focus in Proverbs is not just on us as individuals. It’s about how we live together as a community whether that’s a family, workplace, neighborhood, school, or town. Think of it this way. If you were the only person in the world that owned a car, most traffic laws would be unnecessary. The laws are in place so we can drive safely together. Unsafe driving gets innocent people killed. God has given us His traffic laws to protect us all. We ignore them at our peril together.

Wisdom is like a guardrail or rumble bars to keep us on the path of life. Discretion will guard you. This word translated discretion means to be cagy or shrewd. It’s the idea of being able to see clearly the lies and foolishness around us. We can see the trap being prepared for us, so we avoid taking the bait that leads to misery. We become too shrewd to fall for the lies. The wise are the opposite of the naïve fool who is so easily led astray by the tempter.

Understanding will watch over you. To be understanding is to be insightful. Fools are dull of mind.  Understanding is the ability to distinguish between right and wrong and to expose counterfeit truth. Discretion and understanding are the rumble bars that keep us on the path. They quickly alert us when we are drifting off the road. They keep us from serious harm to ourselves and others. They make us hard to deceive.

A few years ago my daughter Ashley and I were in Germany. I was there to speak at a conference, so we took a few extra days to see the sites. Let’s just say driving in Germany was an experience. We couldn’t read any of the signs, speeds were excessive and there wasn’t a lot of patience for lost tourists. If I still had hair, I would have pulled it out. 

Think how different that experience was compared to driving somewhere back home. When driving around town, I don’t really have to even think about it. I know how to get from here to there. Most of the time I don’t even have to read the street signs. I drive with confidence. I know where I’m going.

Imagine if some troublemaker went out in the middle of the night and changed the street signs around town. Now we’d have a real mess, right? Well, that depends. If that happened in Germany I wouldn’t have known. I was so confused I couldn't tell between a correct sign and an incorrect sign. Like many fools in our culture today, I wouldn’t have had any idea whether I was on the right road or not. 

Then imagine being in a more familiar environment but not enough to know which signs have been tampered with. You can read the signs but how do you know if the sign is correct or one of those the troublemakers rearranged? It’s better than Germany where I couldn’t even read the signs but it’s still a guessing game. Eventually this person is going to get lost because they are still unsure about what is true and what is not.

Now imagine you are somewhere you know very well. No matter how many signs have been changed you are not lost. You know where you are going and how to get there. No troublemaker is going to get you lost just by changing out a few signs. You have great confidence you know the way.

This is what is meant by discretion will guard you, understanding will watch over you. You’ve stored up sound wisdom. You know the right path. You are not going to be deceived by a few troublemakers pointing in the wrong direction. You drive with confidence knowing that if you do drift out of your lane the rumble bars are in place to alert you. It will be very hard to lead you astray.

Traveling the right path is not a guessing game. It’s not luck or good fortune. It’s about believing the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. It’s about rolling up your sleeves and learning and believing. It’s about wisdom entering your heart so that God’s truth is in you to such an extent that you will be quickly alerted when you begin to drift off the path. Make your ear attentive to wisdom and you will live skillfully in these turbulent times.