I have to say, the verse that really jumped out at me this morning is verse 15, and it reads “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.”

I am sure we’ve talked about this already, but this hits on this idea that I heard an entire sermon series on by Andy Stanley called “Right In The Eye” (which is one of my favorite series of all time), and it is this idea that we can justify just about anything to ourselves.  The world is full of people that, in the moment, did what they thought was right in their own eyes.

Think about this.  Guy, who is married, has a girl that he is attracted to at work.  Not a sin...totally normal.  Guy talks to her when she comes by his office from time to time, nothing major, no issue there.  Then, one day the conversation turns away from the weather to something a little more meaningful, and she expresses frustration about her husband the guy, just a passing comment.  A few days later, another comment, and guy does what nice people do and consols her a little, offering some encouragement.  Again, we aren’t in deep water here.  Then they end up eating lunch in the lunch room together...it is a common eating area, no big deal...everyone brings their own lunch and people eat together all of the time.  Next thing you know, he is headed out for an afternoon coffee and asks if she wants something...she says yes, and in fact several others do, so she hops in the car to go get everyone’s coffee with him.  This happens a few times over a month or so and their rides get filled with more meaningful conversations.  Eventually that leads to a drink after work, and you can see where this is going.  In fact, we’ve already read a Proverb containing a version of this story, go back and read Proverb 7...of course, this Proverb makes the female the villain in the story, whereas I was trying to be neutral with the cause here...but you get the point.

Wise in our own eyes...see, wisdom is asking that pesky question we’ve posed before, “What’s the WISE thing to do in this moment?”.  Wisdom is recognizing that life is a series of paths down which we walk...this guy and this girl weren’t doing anything wrong in their early decisions to communicate...nothing at all.  The problem was, they didn’t recognize that they were progressing down a path.  They weren’t worried about doing the WISE thing, they were doing what was right in their own eyes.  Was it okay to be nice to her when she walked by his office?  Yes, of course.  Was it reasonable to listen to her struggles against her husband?  Maybe, but it certainly wasn’t bad to lend an ear that first time when it happened.  Perhaps it was at least in the gray area since he knew he was attracted to her, but still.   And bumping into each other at lunch - I mean, what was he going to do, get up and walk out when she sat down next to him?  6 months into this process and their are involved in a relationship, after having done what was right in their own eyes so many times, and now all of their choices are bad.  People are going to get hurt no matter what they choose.

Seeking God’s wisdom isn’t about us being stupid, it is just understanding that God can see 10 moves ahead, and we often can’t see past the tip of our nose.  Doing what’s right in our own eyes is a fools errand.  Wisdom isn’t doing what’s justifiable, it is doing what’s wise.  As an extension to that, it is doing what God would call us to do...because our minds and our bodies can and will be routinely hijacked by our sinful nature.

Great reading today...great reminder!