Proverbs 1:1-7 – Chasing the Why

 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction."

Proverbs 1:7 (ESV)

True wisdom comes from following the Lord's instruction, not from trying to co-create a plan with Him.

Proverbs is a collection of writings meant to act as an instruction to living faithfully for Jewish youth at the time. While Solomon is believed to have been the primary author of these, it's likely that they were meant to be directed towards his own son Rehoboam (1:8). Regardless of whether they were written directly to him or if they had a more broad purpose to educate young men as a whole, what we know for sure is that they provide a strong foundation for living a life filled with wisdom, authored by the wisest man that only lived once.

I've been doing a lot of searching for wisdom, because I think I really struggle with life not being a simple equation. I do good, I receive good. I give love, I receive love. I give effort, I receive effort. That's true sometimes, because life itself has a way of rewarding you for doing good, and living a life that honors the Lord. But no one has ever gotten back all the love that they've given. Some people even seem to get back a lot more than they give, because they were born with some kind of status, or with a talent, or they're very attractive. Everyone naturally wants to find themselves in the latter situation, but regardless of how fortunate you are – nothing that you receive from those things will ever really be enough. Even if you receive favor from people because of something you were born with, you'll only ever get what feels like love, but will never be real love on its own. So no matter how much of a head start we get, we find ourselves living a life that's just unfulfilling, constantly trying to chase after a transactional joy.

I think because of that misconception, we focus way too much on the "why" in difficult situations. Maybe not even just "did I do something to deserve this," but even "what could God possibly be trying to do with this thing that's happened to me?" And while I think it can be wise to consider the reason God's done something in our lives, since that's a big way for us to learn and grow from His intervention, but what if we're spending too much time dwelling on it?

Notice how whether in the New Testament or Old, we're not making an effort to analyze the judgement of God or His plan – we're making an effort simply to know what to do, regardless of the future circumstances. And man, my flesh hates that. I wanna know what's going on, it drives me crazy when I'm totally ignorant to it. Not just with the future, either. I dwell on the past constantly, thinking of how I could have prevented A or B if I had just done this or put more effort into that. As if there is some kind of system of different lives that I would've lived, had something been different. But at the risk of setting off anyone that swears by the whole "multiverse theory" – that's just not how it works. There is one divine plan, created meticulously by God, which will happen on His timeline and under His authority. So go easy on the whole, "why, why, why," because whatever's happened I promise you will always have happened and was always going to happen. We can learn from the past without always longing for it to have been different.

The wisest man to ever live wasn't able to map out God's will. He instead devoted his life to teaching real wisdom – practicing the instructions given to us, regardless of how His will is revealed to us. Fearing God with respect and devotion to His plan, instead of leaning solely on our own understanding of it.

I'm speaking to myself here, so I know how impossible that feels. But a lifelong struggle of mine (and many, many others) is always going to be shifting my focus from asking "why did You do this to me" to asking "what do You want me to do with this?"

"Show me what real wisdom looks like. Let me not dwell on Your reasons, but focus on Your guidance."