Today’s Word Is … BECOME

Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm. (Proverbs 13:20)

It matters with whom we associate. We cannot avoid being around all kinds of people. Some will be likable and some not … cheerful or not … kind or not … problem solvers or not … complainers or not … and wise or not.

Contact and collaboration are necessary … with those whom we like and those whom we do not. But we do not have to “walk with” everyone in the sense referred to by this Proverb. This phrase “walk with” is about those with whom we spend time in an admiring way. It is about observing how someone has a positive or negative effect on the world around them. It is about asking questions to the one we think of as wise, hoping to learn their secrets of peace, motivation, boldness, and wisdom.

I hope you have a desire to learn and to become a better person. God loves us as we are … yes … but he loves us too much to leave us the way we are. It has been said that you can’t “go with God” and stay where you are.

Unfortunately, some folks are attracted to foolish people … because it appears at times that this type of person gets to be carefree and unburdened. Whereas the wise person appears to be doing too much work, or getting redirected sometimes by inconvenient interruptions, or even sacrificing self-indulgence to become better at serving others or better at a desired skill.

For you and I to become the best we are meant to be, it matters whom we admire and imitate. As for the one who is foolish, but appears on the outside to “have it made” … a window into their private moments might show us the “flip side” of their lifestyle of suffering undesirable consequences and repeatedly making botched attempts to reverse the results of their foolishness.  These are the things they hide from us.

Have you ever suffered harm because you were the companion of fools? Hopefully we left that behind in our younger days! Now would be a good time to resolve to walk with the wise, and in so doing become wise.

Blessings,

Chaplain Mark