Proverbs Experiment: Day Seven

Proverbs Chapter Seven:

Follow my advice, my son; always treasure my commands. Obey them and live! Guard my teachings as your most precious possession. Tie them on your fingers as a reminder. Write them deep within your heart. (vs. 1-3)

I love these verses. I don't know how many times the writer has said to do something as a reminder of his words, but it seems like a lot already. For those of us with memory problems, it's probably a good idea to do something to remind ourselves of certain things. One of my favorite movies of all time is Memento - in that movie, the main character has a memory problem, and any important information he wants to remember he has tattooed on himself. I don't have an tattoos, but I do have a pack of verses that I carry with me most of the time in order to remind myself of God's provision, his faithfulness, and his love for me.

As a father, these verses above carry a lot of weight, because I can see myself saying the same thing to my daughter when she gets older and has to make some tough choices. Again, I wish that my father would have schooled me more in life education and would have asked for me to remember his words of wisdom; unfortunately I did not get that schooling.

Because of that, I had always hoped to have a mentor. Someone who would come along side me, see me as someone worthy of sharing wisdom and experience with, someone I could trust. Unfortunately that has not happened either. I've even asked certain people I have respected to be a mentor to me, but they have always been too busy to do so. Now that I'm getting close to forty, I might have missed that window of opportunity. Now perhaps I need to find a couple of younger guys to mentor, to share my life experiences with, to share my wisdom with - so that in case they didn't receive any wisdom from their parents, they can receive some wisdom from someone who cares about them, who wants to see them succeed in life.

He followed her at once, like an ox going to the slaughter or like a trapped stag, awaiting the arrow that would pierce its heart. He was like a bird flying into a snare, little knowing it would cost him his life. (vs. 22-23)

I know a lot of ministers who have been undone by immorality.

There have been a few who I graduated with who had incredible promise and incredible passion for God, who traded all of that for one night of sin.

I remember someone who used to speak at a summer conference that my student ministry would go to - someone who was an amazing speaker and had us all on the edge of our seats, sometimes in tears - who traded his speaking gift and his passion for sharing God's Word for an affair with one of the high school students he was entrusted to minister to.

We've all heard the news stories of "famous" ministers who have traded their fame and popularity for sin and the demise of their ministry.

And Satan just sits back and laughs.

One of the problems with being "successful" in ministry is that you begin to think that you're untouchable. So many people love you, so many people depend on you for their relationship with Christ. You being to think that you're almost god-like. I haven't experienced that much in the last several years, but I know in my first two ministries, that there was a temptation that when your youth ministry was growing like crazy, and when amazing things were happening, to take the credit for it and receive the adulation that we all crave, we all desire. Thankfully, my self-esteem also wasn't (and isn't) that great, so I could never take the credit for what was happening; I truly believed it was God, and not me, that was growing my ministry. Thankfully, I didn't run into that as much as I could have back then.

At one of the churches I was at, this last year has been hard on the youth ministry, as they've had not one, but two student ministers fall because of infidelity issues. The issues I faced when I was there has probably compounded now because it's much larger; I'm sure the pressure on the ministers there is very great. That's why reading Proverbs would probably be good for anyone in leadership; as the first verses said, they remind us to be wise and not fall into foolish temptations and situations.