“If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; if you scoff, you alone will bear it.” – Proverbs 9:12 If you do it right, you will do the most good by being the most selfish. This is one of those paradigm-shattering axioms that behaves like a nuclear weapon. If...
Wisdom is like a sherpa
“Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul” – Proverbs 2:9-10 If life is a journey, wisdom is your sherpa. We often use navigation terms to describe...
Fear the Lord to start the game
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” - Proverbs 1:7 In the game of Trouble, you need a dice roll of one or a six for your pawn to get on the board. That’s similar to what this proverb tells us about the fear of...
Great people start with service
“She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens.” - Proverbs 31:15 If you’ve been around church for a while, Proverbs 31 might provoke a bit of an eye roll. That’s because so often we treat this chapter like it’s the...
Wisdom can help you win
“For by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory” – Proverbs 24:6 Football is a beautiful sport. It owes its beauty largely to its complexity. Every ten seconds or less, the flow of the game pauses, and there is a...
Saying things that last
“A false witness will perish, but the word of a man who hears will endure.” - Proverbs 21:28 Wisdom and proverbial sayings, they have a way of turning a phrase. A proverb gives you something pithy, but also something a little enigmatic. The phrase of wisdom is a...
Close your mouth to save your life
“Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.” - Prov 13:3 Sometimes, the hardest thing in the world is keeping your mouth shut. There can be this sense, like for Jeremiah (Jer 20:9), that the words you hold back are a burning...
Feasting in a luxurious house
“Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table.” - Proverbs 9:1-2 Americans have mastered few occupations to perfection like feasting and luxury. A survey of our favorite...
The balanced, centered, “zenned” life
"I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion." - Proverbs 8:12 You can become a meditation coach, but you need to know how to pitch it. Why should someone learn how to meditate? For many of the same reasons people seek the expanding field of...
Is getting a lot of sleep the same as being lazy?
“A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.” - Prov 6:10-11 You can sleep when you’re dead. It burns me up when I hear that. It’s the anthem of self-righteous...