April 1, A Day for Fools

Proverbs 1:1-7

The beginning of knowledge

1 The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:

² To know wisdom and instruction,
    to understand words of insight,
³ to receive instruction in wise dealing,
    in righteousness, justice, and equity;
⁴ to give prudence to the simple,
    knowledge and discretion to the youth—
⁵ Let the wise hear and increase in learning,
    and the one who understands obtain guidance,
⁶ to understand a proverb and a saying,
    the words of the wise and their riddles.

⁷ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
    fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Really, what a fitting way to start my new project. Today is April fool’s day. this passage is about knowledge and wisdom and how a fool rejects wisdom. And I am the biggest fool there is.

I decided to start my new journey with Proverbs. Proverbs is one of those books that is always recommended for QT’s and so why not start here.

Today started out very weirdly. Yesterday, after church I took a nap at 1 pm and accidentally slept all the way till 9 pm. I effectively wasted that day and ruined my sleeping schedule. In order to do some damage control, I just layed there in my bed and tried to go back to sleep. Maybe I would be able to fix my sleeping schedule. However, that didn’t work I was wide awake. And so at 3 AM I decided to listen to proverbs 1. That way maybe I would be able to do something productive. It kind of worked because it inevitably led me to doing this project. But at that time it did not really do much for me.

Instead, I fell into the mess called regrets. I just started thinking about there were so many ways where my life could have been different. So many times in my life where if I did just one thing maybe I wouldn’t be like myself right now. Maybe I could have turned out better. If I just applied to that one school that recruited me maybe I could be a professional soccer player. If only I knew that I loved soccer that much when I was younger. If only I had ambition back then. If only I asked out that girl that was clearly pursuing me. So many If’s.

This sort of regret contemplation is not a one time occurrence. It has happened countless time in the past. Yet I have not changed. I have not learned anything from my past mistakes. For me Proverbs 1:7 speaks to me the most at this moment. I am a fool that despises wisdom and instruction. I am seeking wisdom and knowledge from all the wrong places. I am only looking for the answer within myself. I could find some wordy wisdom and knowledge through other people and books that may help a little. But those books and ideas are all fallible and will not fix my empty gaping heart. Where does the beginning of knowledge come from. It comes from the fear of the lord. If I look back now in my past life. I can see that I have not a single time feared the lord. Out of all the things I fear what other people think about me. I guess it does make sense. Every decision I make, every thought that I make, my path of reasoning is derived from what I think will make people be less inclined to not like me. This is my wisdom. A fool’s wisdom. I live so that I can please other people. I don’t even try to think because most people do not feel threatened by a person with no thoughts. This is super self destructive and has handicapped my brain. I am literally just making my life worse and not living the life that God intended. I have closed my ears to the word’s of God. I have been ignoring and basically despising true wisdom.

Why would fear of the lord bring true knowledge and wisdom? Well if you think about God is the creator of the world and he not only is all powerful but he is also all knowing. This is not a scary fear but it should be a reverent fear of  the creator. A fear that leads us to worship God and try to learn about him.By learning about his intentions and listening we can gain wisdom because he has a plan for all of us. Our God is the type of God that wants to build an intimate relationship with us. He is not leave us in our current dead state.

Proverbs 1:1-6. Tells us exactly what the wise do. The wise hear and listen to the instruction and thus when they understand this instruction they obtain guidance. They are listening to God and thus growing in wisdom. What is the best way to listen to God. Two things: Reading of the Bible and prayer. Just because God knows everything doesn’t mean we don’t have to pray. Prayer is how we communicate with God. It shows that we rely on him.

I am going to end this blog with my prayer request to God. My prayer request is that I learn to fear God and no the people around me. And that I seek for true knowledge and wisdom that comes from God so that my eyes will be open to the path that God calls me too.