Friday, April 2, 2010

Oh Elphaba...

Happy Happy Happy Good Friday! -Although Megs and I seem to disagree on how happy the thought of today may be :))

I love that the rain came today! I was hoping for sunshine but our dorm room has been a furnace and it's nice to walk in and not melt :) Thanks for looking out for us God!

This morning the Chapter I read was Proverbs 2. At first I didn't really think about commenting on it because I didn't necessarily think it had a whole lot of meaning. Ridiculous, I know, considering every part of the Bible has a whole lot of meaning.

Allow me to back track and explain what I learned about Proverbs from Regan and reading a little from 1 Kings. The main author of the book is Solomon, although the last 2 chapters I think are by a couple of other people. Solomon was not only the son of David, but the son of Bathsheba! When it was his turn to be king, God asked him what he wanted so the He could give it him (1 Kings 3:5). Instead of asking for a long life, or wealth or to kill all of his enemies (1 Kings 3:11), Solomon asked for wisdom. He was about to be king and had no idea where to start, so he prayed that God would give him the wisdom to be able to discern fairly and be a just ruler. As you can imagine, God was more than pleased by his request and said that He was not only going to give Solomon what he asked, but He was going to give him "both riches and honor" and in verse 12 God says "...there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be." That has to be one of the greatest accomplishments I've ever heard of. He is legitimately the wisest man who ever lived. Incredible. The book of Proverbs is his heart flow. Everything that God was sending to Solomon and that Solomon could put on paper.

Knowing all this, I've been praying before I read that God open my eyes so that I can really read what it's saying. That I can want to be as wise as Solomon and take to heart what God is saying thought him. This morning, chapter 2 was all about the benefits of having wisdom: basically making wisdom sound like candy! Which, it is. The first chapter describes wisdom as a scorned woman almost, so the second chapter is her other side. "For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul" (Proverbs 2:10) and "Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse" (2:12) not to mention "He holds victory in the store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless..." (2:7) and finally, "For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding" (2:6). There you have it! Wisdom is straight from God. So when I choose to sin or make bad decisions, I'm being foolish. And in choosing to be foolish, I give up all rights to the glorious things God prepared and has in store for the wise. When Solomon asked God for wisdom, God didn't say 'okaaaaay, BUT first you have to...' He just let him have it. Therefore, by the same reasoning, when we ask God to help tear us from our foolish ways and to instill wisdom in our hearts, He won't deprive us. God is on our side! The hard part is being willing to give up those foolish things we choose to do and know that things are better that way.

My final thoughts: I turned on my iPod as I was leaving organic this morning and music was playing that I wasn't in the mood to hear. I pressed next and next and next until it came to Glee, something I can't say no to! The song was Defying Gravity and I laughed to myself over the split second thought of how staying Christ-like and wise is a lot like defying gravity. We will never be perfect enough to fly, sin is in our human nature, but won't it be awesome one day to know that the effort you put in here, will help you defy gravity somewhere else? A few moments later the sun came out for a very brief few minutes and Megs and I later decided that the sunshine was God's way of saying "I like." Here's the first verse of the song for you to think about:

'Something has changed within me, someting is not the same. I'm through with playing by the rules of someone else's game. Too late for second guessing, too late to go back to sleep. It's time to trust my instincts, close my eyes and leap...'

BTW, Glee comes back a week from next Tuesday! April 12th! Check it out, it's the feel good comedy of the year :)) I hope everyone has a great Easter weekend and travels safely!

1 comment:

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