You’d Better Be Ready
Proverbs 2:1-6
Several years ago, one of my daughters and I went skydiving. Neither of us were interested in the tandem jump. I wanted to be all by myself floating down. For a beginner this is called a static line jump. You jump alone with a line attached to the plane which automatically pulls the cord for your shoot. It’s awesome, I highly recommend it.
A static line jump required a four-hour class in the morning, then we jumped in the afternoon. The class covered everything you need to know to make a successful jump. Over the years I’ve sat in a lot of classes where students didn’t care. The information covered in class seemed irrelevant to real life. The static line class was different. When the instructor was talking about what to do when your primary shoot doesn’t open or how to land without breaking your leg, he definitely had the student’s attention. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a more attentive class.
This is the same tension the writer of Proverbs is seeking to create. The stakes are high. Mistakes are costly. Receive my words he says, treasure my commandments within you. The idea of within you is interesting to ponder. It carries the idea that wise words and commandments are part of you. They are in you. In the moment of truth, you can’t go back and review your notes. There’s no time to review the lesson. You’d better know what to do if your shoot doesn’t open. An F on a math quiz is bad. An F while skydiving is fatal.
Make your ear attentive to wisdom, he states, incline your heart to understanding. We need to listen with the same motivation as students in a skydiving class because the stakes are high. This is not about a grade on a quiz. This is about either flourishing or making a mess of things for you and the people around you. When temptation strikes, you’d better be ready.
When my girls were little there was a family that lived a few houses up the street from us. Most days their son would walk from their house, past our house to the corner and back. For most people it would take 10 minutes. For him it took an hour.
While in high school he went out with his friends one night. They had been drinking and ended up in a serious car wreck. Our neighbor’s son was severely injured and could barely function. When we knew him he was in his late twenties. It was heartbreaking to watch him struggle so to walk to the end of the block and back.
I remember many times sitting at the kitchen table watching him struggle and saying to the girls, just remember, all it takes is one night and one bad decision. This was a nice family. The father was very successful. From all I heard their son was a likeable young man. But one evening, one choice. The stakes are high. We need to get it right.
How do we do this? No one becomes skillful overnight. Step one, you have to want it, I mean really want it. You need to seek for lady wisdom as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures. There’s no magic to this. You have put in the time to listen and learn. Common sense is not enough in such a confused and chaotic culture. Wisdom is not our default mode. The momentum of the culture is headed away from skillful living. What seems normal may actually lead to heartache. What’s normal today is to make a mess of things. You want something better—I know that—or you wouldn’t be reading this blog. But it takes more than good intentions. You have to put in the time.
The most common excuse I hear from people for not spending more time seeking God’s treasures is they don’t have time. But let’s be honest, we find time for lots of other things. We find time to seek after silver and gold. We find time for social media or entertainment. We find time to exercise or watch sports or read other books.
So, let’s start here. Skillful living requires we seek after God’s truth like we truly believe it contains hidden treasures. We do have time, but do we have the desire? Personally, I would not recommend you jump out of a plane at 4,000 feet unless you paid attention in class. It’s information you need to know before you jump.
If you will pursue God’s truth, then you will discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. Pretty much every time someone comes into my office and shares their heartbreaking story, I could open the Bible and point to places where God warned them this would happen. We don’t have to learn these things the hard way. We don’t have to mess up our own lives and wound the people around us before we get it. We can do better.
The roadmap to skillful living is before us. We just need to pay attention today because we might need it tomorrow. The second time I went skydiving I took the class again as a refresher. I then went through the necessary steps and excitedly jumped out of the plane at 4000 feet. What a rush!
One critical piece of equipment is that you have a walkie talkie attached to your jumpsuit so the instructor on the ground can talk you through all the turns and steps to land safely. For a while I floated down in peace just enjoying the moment. It was wonderful. Then it dawned on me I wasn’t hearing anything from the instructor. It soon became evident the walkie talkie was not working. I was several thousand feet above the ground dropping quickly and on my own.
By the time I realized this I had blown too far beyond the small airport to land in the designated area. Of course, with no motor you can’t go back into the wind. Now what? I remembered the instructions, followed the procedures covered in class, and found a safe place to land in the farmer’s field across the road and glided down safely without incident. No problem. But I have to admit, I was really glad I had listened in class and knew what to do. So, listen today because you may need it tomorrow.