Proverbs Experiment: Day Three

Proverbs Chapter Three:

Never let loyalty and kindness leave you! Tie them around your neck as a reminder. Write them deep within your heart. Then you will find favor with both God and people, and you will earn a good reputation. (vs. 3-4)

Have you ever noticed that kindness is catchy? It's infectious? A few weeks ago I remember seeing a commercial for I think an insurance company. It takes place at a county fair and it starts out with one person showing kindness to another person. In the background you see another person watch the whole thing take place, and then they show kindness to someone else, with someone else watching in the background, and it continues and continues. One person's kindness has the chance to actually bless a bunch of other people, not only the one person they showed kindness to. Something to remember when you have that decision of showing kindness or grumpiness (which probably works the same way, only negatively).

Speaking of kindness, yesterday we went to have our daughter's eyes checked, because she's been squinting a lot. Sure enough, she needs glasses. I was hoping that was one trait I wasn't passing on to her, because I got glasses when I was three years old. At least it didn't hit her that young, but still, I'm sad that she has to get glasses. Anyway, the eye doctor was a very kind older gentleman. He was very sweet with her, and asked me a ton of questions about our lives, and when he found out I was looking for a job, he started asking questions about that. He even took down my name and number and told me that he would talk to some people he knew who were looking for people to hire and that he would get back to me. Someone I didn't even know! That's a great example of kindness - going out of your way for a stranger.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, do not depend upon your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. (vs. 5-6)

Most Christians know these verses. Or at least have heard them before. Today, as I read them, it reminded me of my proclivity to jumping out ahead of what God has planned for me, and figuring it out myself. Not this time, hopefully. It's hard to wait on God's timing and for God to show me what to do, however. And sometimes it's hard to know for sure that he's leading you down a certain path. I know He has called me to do something about child trafficking and child slavery, but I'm unsure about exactly what that means. Do I change careers completely and do this as a career? Is it supposed to be a side hobby? Do I look for an already established organization and join it, or do I start something on my own? The problem sometimes is that when you get the main answer (Yes, you're supposed to be doing something about this...), a thousand more questions pop up. I guess that's where trust comes in. Trust that God will answer those questions, one at a time, at His own choosing, in His own timing.

However, trusting in God doesn't mean inactivity. I watched this short sermon video of this preacher at a large church, and he was talking about Abraham and Sarah and how God told Sarah she was going to become pregnant. Obviously, for the pregnancy to happen, Abraham and Sarah needed to do something. If you know what I mean. Sarah wasn't going to automatically become pregnant - she had to act on what God told her was going to happen.

(It was much more comical and better done by the preacher himself.)

Knowing that fine line between waiting for God to show you the path, and starting to walk down that path, is hard. Or as one person has said, "There's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path."

Do not withhold good from those who deserve it when it's in your power to help them. (vs. 27)

And for commentary on this verse, I quote Mark Buchanan in his amazing book "Your God Is Too Safe":

"The deeper difference between Jesus' ethic and that of the Pharisees was this: The Pharisees had an ethic of avoidance, and Jesus had an ethic of involvement. The Pharisee's question was not "How can I glorify God?" It was "How can I avoid bringing disgrace to God?" This degenerated into a concern not with God, but with self - with image, reputation, procedure. They didn't ask, "How can I make others clean?" They asked, "How can I keep myself from getting dirty?" They did not seek to rescue sinners, only to avoid sinning.

Jesus, in sharp contrast, got involved. He sought always and in all ways to help, to heal, to save, to restore. Rather than running from evil, He ran toward the good. And evil, in fear, fled. Christ's ethic sends us into the gray: It is about restoration, about healing the brokenness. Frequently, Jesus issued a sharp command: "Go!"...

I once spoke to a group of young people and asked them to define a Christian. Here's what they said: A Christian is someone who doesn't smoke, doesn't drink or do drugs, doesn't have sex until marriage, doesn't use bad language. Of course, I am not suggesting a Christian does these things. But it's tragic that we instinctively define Christians by what they are not, by what they avoid. It's like being asked to draw a picture of someone and instead drawing everything around the person and leaving the portrait blank. In saying what Christians are not, we merely sketch the air around them. Christ never did that. In Matthew 25, Christ, regnant and fierce, divides sheep from the goats. How does He tell them apart? How does He separate true followers from false ones? He does not identify His disciples as those who didn't drink and didn't chew and didn't go with girls who do. What He says is, You are My disciple if I came to you naked and you clothed Me, came to you hungry and you fed Me, was in prison and you visited Me...

We are known by our fruits, not by our lack of tree fungus or leaf rot. We need to restore this ethic in our hearts and homes and churches."

This proverb is an amazing one. And once again a reminder for me to DO SOMETHING.