Wisdom Challenge: Day 8
Insights from Chapter 8–
…all those who hate [Wisdom] love death.
Proverbs 8:36 (NKJV)
I remember sitting in his office–
The dim lighting–
The stick figures and dinosaurs doodled on the marker board–
The big box of crayons (the kind with the sharpener on the back) plastered with a Marine Corps sticker proudly proclaiming: Semper Fi!
He adjusted himself in his chair, and the tip of his long beard seemed to do the Tango across his desk. He looked me in the soul and said:
"My question to you is how far are you willing to go before compromising your values?"
I’ll admit I was perplexed. I gave it a moment and calmly replied:
"What's the point of having values if you know you'll compromise them?"
To which he said:
"You're too black and white; I prefer to live in the gray area."
Having nothing more to say, I nodded– compartmentalizing this information about the type of person I’d be dealing with. Then I departed.
The Proverb referenced au début of this post is much like Yahusha (aka Jesus) the Messiah’s words that all who are not with me are against me.
In either case, there’s not much of a gray area. There’s grace for ignorance, of course, but not for deceptively trying to discover loopholes. That will only backfire.
The same goes for me; I often have to examine my own intentions– to check and double check that my decisions aren’t being too heavily swayed by selfish desires at the expense of others, or of what I know to be that true narrow path. It’s much easier said than done, but it’s necessary.
Having right standards for myself helps me to discern between the people who are around me. I’ve had to learn the hard way that not everyone has my best intention in mind.
Call me jaded, but there’s nothing more treacherous than an enemy posing as a friend.
And when it comes to right or wrong, there is no gray area– only black or white.