Our family Bible reading this morning was from the Chronicles - right after Solomon died. His son, we called him "Bo," was in the process of establishing his kingdom.
A contingency from Israel who had served his father came to him and asked him to lighten their work load a bit. Bo asked his fathers advisers what he should do. They said that if you lighten their load, these people will be your grateful servants for as long as you reign.
Bo then asked his peers what he should do. They gave him the opposite advice. Make these people work harder and make their punishment even more severe.
Bo listened to his peers. The kingdom was soon divided and Bo only got to reign over a small fraction of the kingdom that his father had established.
Imagine that you are offered advice from the advisers to the "wisest man that ever lived." Lets just say that it is financial advice. Then you go out on the street, find a homeless man and ask his advice. Whose advice to you take?
Answer: You take the advice of the person that told you what you wanted to hear.
Problem: No matter what type of lifestyle you want to lead, no matter what choices you make with your time, money, resources, relationships, etc... you can always find someone to affirm your choices. A quick read through the ads in Atlanta's "Creative Loafing" confirms that you can find a support group for ANYTHING. I mean Anything.
I believe that every generation is guilty of Bo's folly. We ignore the advice of our elders and seek counsel from our peers or from people who tell us what we have already decided is right. What do we do with this baby? Do you ask your grandmother? Or do you ask your friend with the 2 month old?
Should I marry this person? You find the ONE friend that affirms you and you tune out the 20 that say no.
So what is the wise thing to do?
Somewhere else in the Bible it says that if you walk with the wise, you will become wise. The next sentence says that a companion of fools will be destroyed.
In Bo's case, he chose to be the companion of fools and his kingdom was nearly obliterated.
So, what is our challenge?
I think that our challenge is to identify the wise people in our lives. People, like Solomon's advisers, who have the "fruit on the tree" to prove their wisdom. People who care about us and do not have a "stake" in the decision.
The harder challenge is to put aside our biases and to somehow make ourselves receptive to advice that is the opposite of what we want to hear.
The even harder challenge is follow the advice of the wise, even when all of your peers are doing just the opposite.
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2 comments:
i heard once that is why in proverbs it keep saying "DO NOT BE DECEIVED" because we are SO often deceived by our own hearts and our own desires and we only listen to opinions that match up with what we have already determined in our own sinful hearts.
Your sweet wife is one of those wise adviser types for me.
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