Finding the Sweet Spot

Intro

Continuing our series on “The Good Life”. Saw last week that for the writers of the OT the good life is a life lived according to wisdom, and the foundation of all wisdom is the fear of the Lord.

This past week Aaron Judge broke Roger Maris’ home run record. What made this possible? To look at him, he’s not particularly imposing. It wasn’t just brute strength that allowed him to do it. Rather, he’s learned over time and thousands of balls hit how to hit the ball with the sweet spot of the bat.

People who have spent any time playing golf, tennis, or baseball understand what is meant by “the sweet spot”. It is that specific area on the face of the club or racket that makes the ball travel farther and straighter than anywhere else. And you only have to deviate a fraction from the sweet spot to see what would have been an amazing drive slice deeply into the rough - I know from personal experience!

There is a way to live life in the sweet spot. This is the place where we enjoy the good life. The good life is not about wealth, status, popularity, or pleasure. To use our sports analogy, it means we have to live and connect with life in the sweet spot. This is that place that results in what scripture calls “shalom” - perfect wellbeing.

There is a way of living life that invites peace, joy, and real satisfaction. There’s also a way to live that brings turmoil, pain, and fruitlessness. What the Lord wants to show us this morning is that The sweet spot in life in found in living with the grain of God’s wisdom.

Wisdom orders creation

Prov 3:19-20 “The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens; by his knowledge the deeps broke open, and the clouds drop down the dew.”

God has set up the world to work according to the principles of wisdom. When we work with the grain of that wisdom things tend to work out; when we don’t chaos ensues.

Have you ever put together one of those flat-pack boxed furniture sets like from Ikea? They are designed to be put together in a certain order. If you work in their designed order the project generally comes together. But Lord help you if you decide to wing it, right!

Living with the grain of God’s wisdom is not a guarantee that life will always be stress-free. We live in a fallen world. But in spite of that, things tend to work out better working with the grain of God’s wisdom than working against it. This is where we live in the sweet spot.

Wisdom the tool of creation

Proverbs expands of this passage later in chapter 8. Read Proverbs 8:22-31.

Wisdom is presented as the first part of God’s creation, working beside God in his formation of the world and its people. “Created” doesn’t mean that God didn’t have wisdom until he created it; rather it means more like “brought forth” or “unveiled”. Solomon is pressing the point that wisdom originates in God and that all he has made has been done in and with wisdom.

This is why the wisdom literature is so passionate about pursuing and learning wisdom - it is the path of the good life. To stray from this path is foolishness.

Gal 6:7 “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow.” This doesn’t mean that God is sitting with a hammer waiting to smite anyone who steps out of line. God isn’t trying to get the last laugh. Rather, God is not mocked means that you aren’t going to beat the system trying to do life your way. God has set up the world in a wise order; if you go another way you reap what you sow. Gravity is a good part of God’s created order, but if you think you can fly and jump from a cliff, what do you think will happen? This is the reaping and sowing talked about. It’s deciding to live either with or against the grain of God’s wisdom.

I love how Proverbs 8 ends. Read Proverbs 8:32-36.

Wisdom now speaks to us directly, imploring us to listen, to watch, to wait for wisdom. I love those last two verses: whoever finds me finds life. In other words, here is the sweet spot! But whoever hates me loves death! The Lord can’t be anymore blunt than that! But this bluntness is motivated out of love for us and his desire that we thrive. He wants you to enjoy the good life.

Treasures of wisdom in Christ

As Christians, we believe that all scripture is ultimately about and leads us to Jesus. The church fathers have taught us that the personified wisdom that speaks to us in Proverbs is none other than Jesus himself speaking. Listen to what Paul writes in his letter to the Colossians: Colossians 1:15-18 “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.”

“Firstborn” doesn’t mean Jesus is created. He is co-eternal with the Father. Rather, firstborn is about his rank, not his birth order. Jesus IS the wisdom of God through whom and for whom everything has been created. He’s the one working beside the Father and delighting in the human race. He is the one “unveiled” at the very beginning of God’s creative acts who partners with him in creation.

And it is in Christ Paul goes on in the letter to say Colossians 2:3 “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” For the Jews, wisdom was found in the study of the Torah. To the Greeks of the time, wisdom was found in esoteric philosophy. Paul counters all this saying that wisdom is found in a person. Paul isn’t saying that the treasure of wisdom is hidden from us, but for us, in Christ. Wisdom for the good life is to be sought for and found in him.

When we talk about the sweet spot in reference to life, people usually mean that place where we feel like we belong, where we are doing what we feel we were made for. Most people think that is found in a job. If we happen to find ourselves in a career that really aligns with our skills and passions, we say we are in our sweet spot. I would beg to differ. I mean, it’s great if you like what you do and feel satisfaction from it - we should all hope for that. But that isn’t the sweet spot. I’m sure you have seen, like me, how people jump from one thing to another, always trying to find that elusive joy and satisfaction in life they crave. They look for it in their career, in romantic relationships, in hobbies, in having a buff body or a high IQ. There’s nothing wrong with those things, and they can be a big blessings. I personally enjoy having both a really great body and a high IQ. Right! But trying to find our sweet spot in these things is actually to work against the grain of God’s wisdom.

Scripture would point us in a different direction. The sweet spot in life is not found in a job or pleasure or friends or wealth - as good as any of those things might be. The true sweet spot in life is found in relationship with Jesus. To use our sports analogy again, connecting rightly with Jesus is how we will hit the ball farther and straighter than any other way. And to the degree we deviate from him is where our life slices out into the rough. He is what you were made for! He is how you live “with the grain” of God’s wisdom, and in him is where you discover what is truly the good life.

Maybe you are in a situation where you are living with the consequences of bad choices. I want to offer you hope this morning. Psalm 66:8-12. The history this psalm references are events that happened to Israel, but God didn’t actually do any of these things to them. They were the result of their disobedience. But look how it closes: “yet you have brought us out to a spacious place.” You’ve not made such a mess of things that God can’t redeem it. This is who he is. It’s why we call him our Redeemer. Today, let this hope lift you out of whatever despair you feel and turn to the one who can turn your life around. He will put you back in the sweet spot. Amen.