If you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Proverbs 2:3-5 NIV
King Solomon was gifted all the world’s riches but chose the gift of wisdom instead.
Wisdom, insight and understanding are gifts that pay out generations beyond material wealth.
They build and leave legacies while keeping you safe along your pathways.
Diligently seeking wisdom and its insights cuts through the clutter of this world we all seek to understand.
Life is so much more than precious metals or buried treasures.
Wisdom is far more valuable to those who will choose to play the long game, delaying the instant for the eternal.
King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth. All the kings of the earth sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart. 2 Chronicles 9:22-23 NIV
…will come to an end just like everyone else…
Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years. Then he rested with his ancestors and was buried in the city of David his father. And Rehoboam his son succeeded him as king. 2 Chronicles 9:30-31 NIV
…with no promise of a lasting legacy.
After Rehoboam’s position as king was established and he had become strong, he and all Israel with him abandoned the law of the Lord. 2 Chronicles 12:1 NIV
Life’s a bi__h and then you die.
The book of Ecclesiastes, one of King Solomon’s own works, reflects on the meaning of life and the human experience emphasizing the vanity and transience of worldly pursuits.
We become so engrossed in amassing wealth, prestige, and other definitional measures of our personal success, we often lose sight of accomplishing truly lasting measures that help ensure legacy in this world and in the one beyond.
Rehoboam, in a single generation, essentially reversed the legacy of his father Solomon. But it was Solomon who, despite his wealth, wisdom and fame, gave us the lasting wisdom that it is all vanity, a meaningless existence in the big picture of eternity.
What maelstrom of accomplishments are you caught up in at the expense of an eternal remembrance?
Legacy matters only in the personal gifts of love, obedience, and worship you can leave not to other people, but to an eternal God.
They forsook all the commands of the Lord their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves, and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the starry hosts, and they worshiped Baal. They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. They practiced divination and sought omens and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger.” 2 Kings 17:16-17 NIV
Ya think?
Everyone worships something.
Religious, spiritual or a liquor bottle, we all choose an object of undying affection and pay homage to it as if it were the savior of our desperate lives.
Though we all know that Jesus Christ is among our options, the enemy feeds us lies and reasons to choose otherwise and like sheep, we follow him to the slaughter of our souls.
The trap is not inescapable.
If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
Darkness prevails in the absence of light.
You need light in your life. Real light. The kind that pierces the darkness of this world. That’s what’s missing. The light of Jesus’ love illuminates a path of forgiveness and new life.
I wish I’d planned better, worked harder, took the other job, done that and not this.
I wish I’d had someone to tell me what today would be like. I wish I hadn’t called in sick, took that fall, been more careful at certain things and been more careless at others.
I wish I’d been able to see the world, see my grandchildren, see my lover one last time.
I wish I’d stayed in the game, away from games of some and closer to those of others.
I wish I’d lived when I had the chance and taken chances that made me feel alive when I had them to spend.
I wish I could go back in time to take the road less traveled more or just traveled more often.
I wish I had more wishes that came true and that I’d been truer to myself.
I wish I’d given more instead of giving in.
I wish I’d dwelt on cliffs instead of in the valleys, in the nows instead of in the maybes and I wish I’d been more aware.
I wish it wasn’t all over when I still have beginnings left to spend.
And I wish it wasn’t so quiet and dark and moist and blurry.
And I wish it wasn’t so red.
And I wish I’d kept my eyes on the road instead of my phone, giving me more time for better final wishes than these.
The Matthew 25 stories are analogies to illustrate what God expects from us beyond simply believing in him and the resurrection event.
True belief demands we adopt its mission and here’s how these analogies are affecting me now.
To wait until my forced retirement, old age, encroaching serious health issues, and sharp reduction in real life social connections to decide how best to be a bold soul-winner for Christ puts me late to the party and seemingly disadvantaged.
Flogging myself with a lifetime of regretful shoulda coulda wouldas won’t change much of anything except to pave roads for continued delays and reduce my chances to be truly effective at this “new” mission of my old age.
But to know he weaves all things for his good despite my delays still feeds my confidence whether I have days, weeks, months or years of punches left on my dance card.
Maybe it’s prompted by the belated reckoning of my own mortality or it’s just taken these many years of experience to bring about the conscious realization that my faith “should” have accrued a lot more works by now, is water under the bridge.
Using my talents and zeal to advance the kingdom of God in lives of others I want by my side when I’ve finally crossed over to eternity is where I’m seeking this late-in-life momentum.
I believe I’ve accomplished much for others in my life and I’ll continue because that’s just who I am, but I have fallen short when it comes to helping lead people to the saving knowledge of Jesus as their own personal Lord and savior.
So this is my conviction and call now.
My prayer will be for God to clear paths, open doors, and cause me to be spiritually responsive to prompting by the Holy Spirit.
Today is my new day and the remainder of the rest of my life begins now.
King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth. The whole world sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart. 1 Kings 10:23-25 NIV
If you recall, Solomon’s first and only request was for wisdom. Not for riches or power.
Wisdom was what built his kingdom into riches and power never seen before.
1 Kings 9:4-5 is the pact he made with God that assured the continuation of his riches, power and rule.
Too many of us have focused on prayers for riches or power and devalued the wisdom that make them possible.
What a world this might be today if we all craved wisdom and insight over money and fame and acknowledged wisdom as the gift it is.
The gift that keeps on giving.
Wisdom is the currency of God that keeps us humble yet makes us wealthy beyond measure.
God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore, greater than the wisdom of all the people of the East, and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt.
He was wiser than anyone else and his fame spread to all the surrounding nations. People came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world. 1 Kings 4:29-34 NIV
Wisdom reaches much further than intellect. Wisdom embodies principles, values and morals with all their nuances within its proclamations, all programmed in by the mind and heart of a loving God.
Consequences of rule by a wise and principled leader is a peaceful and satisfied kingdom which Solomon had created and enjoyed.
We pray for our own leaders to manifest and exercise the wisdom of Solomon and to prize wisdom far above wealth, honor and fame.
I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.—1Timothy 2:1-2
Not so long ago I was playing softball, riding bikes and buying far more wedding gifts than sympathy cards.
Then both parents died within a few years of one another suddenly leaving me in grasp of the eldest branch of my family tree, unprepared and now at more of my own doctor visits than walks in the park.
I started being more careful climbing ladders and began taking fewer risks and chances with the advancing march of my own mortality.
It all came more clearly into view and way sooner than expected. And I wasn’t alone.
Out for coffee and conversation with peers and friends became more talk of our empty nests, punctuated by pill counts and nagging pains like unwilling nomads that have shifted and moved with the weather or for no reason at all.
When did I move to the front of the line where the old people used to stand?
You can’t even take a number here anymore.
I suppose they just call when the luck runs out and yours is up.
And a few tears later, the next generation advances to take your place.
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”
Matthew 16:24-25 NIV
Self-denial and living contently within it isn’t a popular choice during these days of human indulgence.
Bearing one’s own cross is no easy task, but it is a central desire of those who would willingly follow Jesus.
While I wouldn’t profess self-denial as my strongest suit, there are key areas of my life I choose to daily deny myself solely due to my love for Jesus.
The weight of this cross on me has eased over the many years I’ve maintained it as I’m sure you have done so yourself.
There’s a price to following Jesus and it’s paid every morning you wake up.
If you haven’t yet created the vacuum of your own private self-denial, you may be missing out on the infilling of the Holy Spirit to advance your faith and flourishing.
My good friend succumbed to his illness last year with a host of unanswered questions.
He literally wrote the book on unanswered questions and spiritual dilemmas. Actually, two books if I recall. I was his editor for the first one so I gained an intimate understanding of what ailed him spiritually before the physical one snatched him up to heaven to be fully alive and enlightened.
I still think about Jeff from time to time and envy what he now knows with an absolute certainty from the One with all the answers. And unless he’s writing the prequel to share, I’ll just have to wait.
But in all honesty, I’m one of many dying to know what Jeff found out.
