Today’s passage is Proverbs 13: 1-13. A wise son listens to his father. Guard your mouth to prevent ruin. The proud cause discord while the wise heed advice and find reward in obeying commands. A lazy man is never satisfied but a diligent man’s desire and longing are fulfilled, becoming a tree of life.
Did you listen to your father?
Do you regularly save money, if only a little, or do you spend beyond your means, wanting what you see others have, pretending to be well off?
Which of your hopes have been deferred and what longing has been fulfilled?
When I was young, I expected things to work out well for me.
My hopes were expectations.
I expected to do well in school, I expected to do work I thoroughly enjoyed with a huge salary, I expected to marry a beautiful, loving wife who always agreed with me,
I expected to have healthy, happy, obedient children who adored me, I expected to invest wisely, grow exceedingly rich and provide abundantly for my family, I expected to travel the world, roughing it when I wanted and then retreating to first class when I tired of playing the peasant.
None of this occurred. My hopes were perennially deferred and my heart grew sick (12). Life was harder than I expected.
But among the accumulating ruins of my hopes I began to discern longings that were deeper and stronger than my hopes.
Partly because my father was in the military and we moved a lot, I longed for friends that didn’t disappear. I longed for an end to my loneliness.
I longed for simple acceptance.
I didn’t recognize this as insecurity but, because it was, I did all the standard things to garner attention, justifying my prideful bragging, my lies, my grand schemes and my posturing as necessary means to fulfilling the longing I had.
I longed for the security that I thought status and money and power would give me, not seeing that life is precarious and there are no guarantees outside of the Lord’s for salvation and his enduring love.
I longed for love, to receive it, give it and be surrounded by it. But I didn’t see that it grows out of respect, admiration, trustworthiness, courage, gratitude and integrity.
Without living a sober, caring upright, joyful, focused life, I didn’t stand a chance of enjoying the love I longed for.
Years of hardship, suffering and the humiliation of my pride led to what I believe is the earthly fulfillment of my longings and the realization that the ultimate fulfillment will be in heaven when I will see God face to face. But for now and what remains of my life, I have the spiritual community of Wooridle where I don’t feel lonely or insecure or unloved.
And God’s guide to this community was the wife he matched me with, a teacher of love. And out of this community came a job I didn’t know I longed for until the Lord dropped me into it.
Application: ask my mother to tell my sister, “I love you.”
Lord, let me long for what is true, uplifting, loving and holy. Let those become the desires of my heart. Keep me from vain imaginings of pride. Keep my mouth free of mockery.
