The Path: Getting Help Along the Way
Notes
Transcript
A man was on the practice golf course when the club pro brought another man out for a lesson. The pro watched the fellow swing several times and started making suggestions for improvement, but each time the pupil interrupted with his own version of what was wrong and how to correct it. After a few minutes of this interference, the pro began nodding his head in agreement. At the end of the lesson, the student paid the pro, congratulated him on his expertise as a teacher, and left in an obviously pleased frame of mind.
The observer was so astonished by the performance that he asked, “Why did you go along with him?” “Son,” the old pro said with a grin, as he carefully pocketed his fee, “I learned long ago that it’s a waste of time to sell answers to a man who wants to buy echoes.”
Prayer…Gracious God of life, love, and mercy, in this time of reflection today, open our hearts, our minds and our spirits to clearly hear you through all the voices in our lives. We know that you are the only one with perfect advice for us. Amen.
It’s a waste of time to sell someone advice when all they want is echoes of what they have heard before…what profound words for our scripture and time of reflection for this morning.
On this third Sunday in Lent, we are looking at another Proverb which guides us along the way to the Cross. We are just a few weeks away from Easter and celebrating what it means to have new life in the resurrection of Christ and we are studying some passages from Solomon which will help us to explore ourselves and what it means to be a Christian in this 21st Century. While we are on this journey together, I am praying that you have taken some time to read further and have begun asking yourself, what this means for me personally. Part of what we have discovered so far is that our direction determines our destination, sometimes as we journey through this life, we need to make some course corrections so that we stay on the path that God has laid out before us, and last week, we spent some time talking about how our hearts are a big part of what we say and do. Today, we will look at what it means to be seeking out wise counsel along the way.
I do have to issue this one caveat…what we will talk about today will probably raise more questions than it will provide answers. To be honest, that is what this Proverb is about at its heart any way…asking the important question of who is it that we are listening to along our way…is it someone who gives us good solid, God advice or is it someone who makes rash decisions and provides counsel that may not be in our best interest but rather in their own. So, as we begin, know that what we will discover is that this question is not always straightforward and easy to answer...
Our human advisers
Our human advisers
With that caveat out of the way, let’s talk a little bit about what Solomon advises…looking at verse 22, Solomon gives us a piece of advice on advisers...
Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many advisers bring success.
Yep, got it…if I make all my own decisions and never ask for advice, I am bound to fail. However, if I seek out the counsel of many, my plans will succeed. For anyone who has ever heard the old adage, “Too many cooks spoil the broth...”, this seems really contradictory to what we are often told, right?
Here’s what I think Solomon is really trying to flesh out here…when we only make decisions based upon our feelings and our hearts, there are bound to be more times than not that we fail to get the outcome we really expected. Think in terms of things we all do out of our emotions…whether that is joy, need, or anger. When we are making decisions and doing things based solely upon our emotions, as we have discussed previously, often times those decisions end up coming back to bite us in the you know where, right? When we make decisions without taking time to think, we can get ourselves in serious trouble. I know I have made some very rash decisions in my life and I can imagine many, if not all of us, can relate. What Solomon is trying to flesh out for the Israelites is for them to look before they leap. Historically speaking, the Israelites, at the time Solomon wrote these words, are making some really rash decisions.
The Israelites are fighting amongst themselves and become a divided Kingdom shortly after Solomon’s death. This was a huge blow to the Israelites. For centuries, the kingdom had lived and been united. But as with many things in this life, when we begin to act as if we are the only ones affected, we begin acting without thinking about it much. The unfortunate part is that even with all of Solomon’s wisdom, he too did things without wise counsel. One of the things that led to the demise of the united kingdom of Israel was Solomon’s decision to enlist some pretty harsh labor standards on the people. While his heart might have been in the right place, it was bad advice that led to the decision to harshly treat the people he served...
It is folly to reject wise advisers
It is folly to reject wise advisers
It is interesting to me that the man who wrote these words, also wrote the next piece that we are going to look at. And it is also interesting that Solomon really did not seem to heed his own advice…Proverbs 11:4 says this about wise leaders and their advisers...
Without wise leadership, a nation falls; there is safety in having many advisers.
Don’t get me wrong, Solomon was very wise but even the wisest people make bad decisions if they follow unwise advice. With me on this? I would think that if each of us looked back over our lives, we can pinpoint at least one decision that we made based upon bad advice. Whether that be for a personal decision about what to do next in our lives or for financial purposes, we can probably find one, right?
Now, I also need to say here that amid all the voices we hear in today’s world, there are some good and some bad advice all over the place. All you have to do is look at all that is coming out in the media about the corona virus right now. There is good advice, like from the CDC and WHO and there is some bad when you only focus on the propaganda out there. This is a serious pandemic, not doubt about that, but there are ways to prevent the spread of the virus. But we also need to not panic and keep a level head about what we do in response. Most of what I am seeing and hearing, coming from the CDC, is that we can do things to prevent it.
Before I get away from what we need to discuss today, I just had to mention that keeping our hearts focused on prevention and focusing our minds on prevention will get us through this time…so that leads me to the question of what do you believe...
Unwise advisers are dangerous
Unwise advisers are dangerous
It is hard to determine whether we are getting good advice or not. Today’s world thrives on having information the very second we want to have it. How can you weed out the good advisers from the bad? Unfortunately, I do not have a clear cut, scientific, or even emotional way to tell you how to do this…it is hard and sometimes we will think that we have good advice and follow it only to end up later seeing that it may not have been good advice at all…I am thinking now of the Enron debacle of the mid to late nineties. There was a situation of trusted advisers who did some very wrong things and ultimately offered bad advice. It is hard to determine what is good, solid advice verses the advice of those who only want what is best for themselves.
Solomon does not give us much on this either, unfortunately, but he does advise this...
The heart of the godly thinks carefully before speaking; the mouth of the wicked overflows with evil words.
So, what I think we need to be doing in this time is stopping before we jump to conclusions, thinking before we speak, and really getting the advice of many to make the most informed decisions we can. We can make good informed decisions when we take time to consider what the outcome might be. When we think before we do anything, when we seek out those who might have our best interests at heart, and weed through all of the thorns of today’s society, we can be assured that what we do next will be for the better.
As we move into the future together, stepping out in faith, listening to one another and making sure that we are doing what is best for the whole rather than the few, we can be assured that God will join us and guide our hearts and minds to the best path for us, Amen!