Day 3686 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Job 28:28 NIV

Who is wise among you?

Are there wise among us? Are we among the wise? Is there wisdom within us? If so, as we so clearly seem to try and show, what then have we to see of all that we’ve all come to be? Do we show our wisdom within the way in which the Word wants us to? Or are rather our deeds done sans the very humility that is He whom came to save us from what we’ve become quite willfully? Is there room for our will to be so won within the humility that only wisdom wins? Is it wise to do all we’ve done as done as if nothing new can be won under the sun?

Is it wise to live through eyes that teach our minds to tell our hearts that none need be under the Son as He’s, for now at least, still unseen?

See, so much of what we seem to assume we know and understand about life and all that’s experienced within it is accomplished alongside this idea that we need to see it first. We talk all the time about this raucous ridiculousness that considers that the safest way through life is that spent following that quite fanciful idea that believes that “seeing is believing”. And it is fanciful because it is foolish. Fancy because it makes us feel as if we’ve some sense of say inside of our lives as lived so often for what we see, leaving at least our eyes of the ability to behold the prize or the troubles that threaten to steal it away.

Foolish because we know we’ve not seen near enough to know enough to understand enough to claim that we are undoubtedly wise enough to deserve said prize.

For riddle me this: Are the wise those who think themselves there already? Or rather do not the learned so appreciate learning that they continue to seek it even after having found it? Is it wise to entertain finish lines in life, in love, in faith? ‘Til death doth thou part? Why then? Does such a staunch stance not waver along the way toward wherever one proves the first to leave? Is this then all we’re to know of love? Is it wise to see such a gift through such a stain upon the life?

Because the loss of a loved one is something that leaves a scar no time can prove fully healed. What then can we know of love if such a gift is only supposed to always end, either at our end or somewhere along the way there? Why do we entertain such things as divorce for the division of then past love it defines? Prenuptial presumptions of one party proving petty or pathetic and thus presenting the other with the proof they knew they’d need to leave with half their things?

It’s like we know only to plan on quitting out of either fear or inevitable failure.

And yet is fear not a failure? Or rather is failure something we more readily accept than the fear that’s not so discountable as we so seek to make ourselves assume?

See, we hate being afraid, of anything. In fact, we so love this concept of fear as felt for our pre-planning a way by which to always avoid it that we seem even to the point of inventing things to be worried about. Is it wise to worry though? Who among us, by worrying, might add even an hour to their lives as lived lost looking elsewise for more things to fear? Should we always so seek to run away from what makes us feel afraid? Or is not that we can feel so much fear only perhaps some of the best evidence that we’re still alive?

Much like pain.

Indeed, I’ve long considered pain to be amongst the greatest of all teachers as it inspires us, and quite effortlessly at that, to not do ahead the things we’ve done recently that invited the pain to come so close as to be felt personally. It’s like putting your hand on a hot burner whilst making dinner. Not much else teaches you to not do that ever again as doing so! Is not that wisdom? An understanding won within our fear of feeling this intensity of agony as always waiting within the many things we’ll either fail to get right or fear we might get wrong?

Is that not why we’re all so afraid of God, some so much that they simply go out of their way if not out of their mind trying to deny His very feasibility? Or is it just the current lack of visibility? I mean, if seeing is believing, as so very many seem to believe, then is not the inability to see then the lack of the ability to believe? And do we not all remain afraid of what we don’t believe? Not that any would ever agree to such an overly if not overtly simplified description of fear, but why else fight so hard to deny what we claim we don’t believe in at all?

Seems kind of a stark waste of time, doesn’t it?

Indeed it does, and yet here we live amongst those so wise within only their own eyes that they seem to see the reason to continue to seek the reasons to deny God’s existence through either words aimed against His own or an ongoing continuance of what’s now been a longstanding hatred of the humility that His very own came to show in what remains the greatest showing of love in human existence.

Maybe then so many seem to remain willfully afraid of Him so that they might continue to deny Him because what He did only proves that not even death can tear us apart.

No, instead death, as displayed in Christ, it seems rather something meant to bring us finally together into that place He’s left to prepare for those for whom it would be prepared even whilst they remained, or perhaps remain even still today, amongst the lost living as if it’s wise to live according to the fallen ways a world finding oddly enough always more fear than hope. Is that wise? To continue running away from what we then continue to find along what’s then only the way that seems to flee only away from hope and happiness and healing and meaning?

Does fear have a meaning that’s meant to so oppose such a thing as hope? Or does not the presence of fear help us to better outline what it is that we hope to find, feel, see, be?

See, we're used to a life in which everything has a time and a place. And yet also one in which we allow fear no place, and too the same for belief as we’re simply afraid to try for such a scene unseen. But what does it benefit us if God were always then seen the same? That’s kind of what we talked about a little bit yesterday in regard to the two differing types of fear felt by all of us here. For there’s a fear that is borne out of the belief that something or someone will be let down, mostly us if we’re honest. But then there’s also a fear that is simply afraid.

And while we all so clearly know so well the latter in regard to this matter of God’s existence, that fear felt in His being there proving us being wrong, the issue is that we should understand that version whist not discounting the first so much as we do. At least on His part. Because you see, our arrogance and vanity, enemies of humility, they inspire us to live only worried about our being let or disappointed or hurt or unhappy. And thus we learn to, at least eventually, all but discount those very same experiences upon the part of He who made us to be more than we’ve chosen to become.

For the Spirit He gave is not the same as that which inspires only fear and timidity, but rather that which also ignites such things as power, love, and, hold onto your hats and sit down if you can, self-discipline. Yes, the Spirit He gave us teaches us to say ‘NO’ to all that is ungodly and thus unholy and thus not only what we should fear but also what we should fight against. Yes, fighting against something is indeed something we all seem to know plenty well in regard to fear.

After all, nobody fails to grab a shoe and get to work when they see a spider crawling where they don’t want it to be.

But of what are we fighting for in regard to our feeling of fear? Or do we sadly assume it wise only to use fear as a reason to continue fighting against? See, the heartbreaking reality is that so many are living a life spent in enmity against God, fighting there against Him out of their being only afraid of Him without the other kind of fear which speaks to a reverent respect of Him. I suppose that both versions of fear are plenty reliant upon respect, it’s only the deeds done and how we do them that then defines the difference.

For yes, it’s clear to see inside this sinful world that being afraid of God is plenty reason enough to live as if He’s simply not there to actually care about what we’re doing as done so as to inspire us to do the better He created us to be. But what of those few who find that fear mixed with the other that inspires them to actually fight not against God’s being there, and thus asking that we do better, but also take that as a reason to want that same better without having to worry about all this letting someone down?

See, that’s why the world continues to run away so afraid from the God who came to save them. It’s not because the gift isn’t both graceful and glorious. No, it’s merely that it reminds that we’ve only every right to be so afraid having never learned the wisdom that is the fear of God. For again, as we started today’s discussion, the wise amongst us “show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.” Because indeed, “a good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.”

And too, “a good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.” Thus proving that our deeds are what display either the presence or rather the absence of both wisdom and understanding. Because the things we do show the world, and all those watching, who we really are as arrived at by who or what we believe.

That’s why He calls us all back to the humility that is won only in wisdom.

It’s, “so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.” Thus we find both the reason for a fear of God as proven in the prize toward which it leads.

“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

And thus now nothing to be so afraid of His finding that we continue to live life fleeing from His trying only to set us free via the Truth which came to clear the way of all of which we’ve lived so very afraid.

But will we make the trek? That one we’re in Him asked to take from who we've become toward who He meant us to be as we, along the way, learn to do yet another thing of which we’ve become afraid which is to wave goodbye to the many things we've sought to try, buy, believe, deny? Yes, will we welcome the many worries awaiting within our walking away from a way spent always only afraid, and too the many wars they wish to wage within the days as read upon the page of a life that's to be turned upside down so as to then shake out of us all that wasn't ever meant be where it's been so allowed to stay here inside what we've become?

Will we run? Will we crawl? Who knows, perhaps both. I do know that we will fall, but then the question becomes whether will it be voluntary or instead violently. Again, truth is likely both as we've so much to learn in humility's way that we're bound to both feel and yet still fear the flame that is His Name that came only remove the dross from everything from how we dress to what we think best. For the reality is that we know nothing of this, this mysterious best that we've been looking for so selfishly and yet still so clearly remain somehow utterly unable to find anyway.

Doesn't that speak to the futility of our folly and the fear it continues to find? That we can both imagine what our ideal existence would be whilst also smack inside the very vicinity of all the matters and measures of all the pleasures that we've come to treasure and yet we still cannot manage even a perfect day? What then is this continued fascination with our perfect way? We can't get through an hour without something going wrong or our finding a new worry of which to become so fearfully afraid!

How much longer then must we pretend that we should hold on to what we hope will day soon prove our every ideal not so idiotic as it's already been proven in all the imperfections found both behind us and yet still in us?

Or is not that what we’re afraid of? That we’re not nearly as perfect or pious as our performances so seek to show? For we’ve lived a long time trying to please people into thinking that we’re more special or important or powerful than we know any of us can ever be. And so thus maybe it’s only us that we’re afraid of letting down. For maybe it’s only ever been us who’s bought this nonsense that we’ve been trying to sell all this time. And perhaps that’s why so many continue to deny God too.

Again, not because the promises He has aren’t so amazing that we should elate at all the changing He intends to begin before we can be where He’s invited us to return. No, but rather because we’ve become convinced that there’s not all that much wrong in us to warrant such a war spent now against who we’ve become at the appreciation of He who came to help us see just how wrong we are.

For sure, continuing to live as if He’s just not there might make us feel better about letting Him down as much as we do. But isn't that fear only meant to inspire us not to?

Because, after all, if we really did respect Him, love Him, revere Him, wouldn’t we want to stop failing Him so much that we seek only to flee from Him? Indeed, such fear as that found in our not wanting to let Him down, such is wisdom and it’s why wisdom remains, at least for here, a lifelong process proven within increasingly good works that show all who have eyes to see and ears to hear that we are not who we once were but are rather growing finally within the humility that inspires us to seek Him rather than ways to revere more our fears as found mostly only in that He might be there where we’ve long denied we should aim too.

For we are a people who know perfectly how to fall. And yet everything about Him is promised instead in the raising up. Even from death!

Which is too now something that we needn’t fear anymore as it’s not still the great coming back to reality that we all have worried about having lived as if our version were the only there to honor. Rather now death is merely the moment in which we shed this trial and step into the triumph that He’s invited us to share. Question is, do we get it?

Do we understand what He’s done, and thus what all He calls us do? And even if we claim to, is there evidence to be seen and heard inside our existence that proves we do understand the weight and wealth of His? Because to fear God is wise as He holds the keys to life and too those to everlasting death. But to then shun the evil that wins such a dire wage as that unending demise, that is a kind of understanding that shows we are wise.

For the world will continue going from worse to worse, deceiving and being deceived. Those who thus shun such a share in evil will show themselves to be increasingly different as their share in His light will only seem to shine more bright as the world flees into continuing to show that they fail to understand what wisdom is as they instead win only worrying about that chance that they might be as wrong as His death only says He is willing to forgive.

Yes, much of the world sees only the pain. Blessed are those who see the unseen purpose that is the promise that He accomplished by suffering so.

Thus perhaps it’s not the suffering that we should fear but rather the inability to see the reason for it.

Because hope holds that He has a reason for everything. And if it also believes that His every reason is for our good, well then what are worried about so much that we’d rather run away from the One who came to save than to surrender our worries to the winnings He’s won on our behalf?

No, that just doesn’t make sense, no matter how common it may be. Rather let us fear the Lord and thus shun such a share in such common evil. For all of us are afraid of God, and again, rightfully so. But only a few will actually allow that fear to do what it’s meant to.

And thus only a few will ever show that they understand what wisdom is by their embracing the humility that only wisdom brings.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold