Tightroping Wisdom

Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil. -Proverbs 4:25-27

The call of God upon your life is towards wisdom. But the call towards wisdom is also a call away from foolishness. Wisdom and foolishness are opposites and cannot be both followed at the same time and in the same way.

Proverbs 4 is a call to walk the tightrope of life. We each have our own rope to cross, and will either be greatly hindered or greatly helped by one another. Each of our ropes lead in two directions. One direction is the rope of wisdom. This rope leads to eternal life in heaven. The other direction is the rope of foolishness. This rope leads to eternal death and punishment in hell. One of the problems is that the rope of foolishness often has signs that deceive and promise the destination of heaven. The other problem is that the rope of foolishness seems to get larger and more sturdy the farther it gets towards hell; whereas the rope of wisdom seems to get thinner and harder to stay on.

“Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.”

Our promise here is that if we ponder the path of our feet, the Lord himself will make all our ways be sure. The rope may get harder to stay on the closer we get towards heaven. But the one who promises help is the same one who holds and steadies the rope.