Episode 1470: Choosing How We Shall Live

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me

[00:00:01] on

[00:00:01] episode 1, 470 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:08] Brian Russell: I'm Brian Russell. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence, impact the world by using your time, your talents, and your treasure to live out your calling. Live by faith, be known by love, and be a voice of hope.

[00:00:23] Those are the keys, and one way to fuel those, that kind of life, is to listen to this. The Inspired Stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Maderer,

[00:00:42] Scott Maderer: and that's part of the key because I think so often we say that we wanna live with biblical roots. We say that we wanna live the way that God has taught us to do it, but then we don't actually look at what we are being told to do. Instead, we take what we already want to [00:01:00] do and project that onto the Bible.

[00:01:03] Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, Invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:36] In today's Spiritual Foundation episode, I talk about Proverbs, chapter 22, verses 1 through 2, verses 8 and 9, and verses 22 through 23. I share how these are representative of the type of wisdom found in Proverbs. In this part of the wisdom literature, and I also share how these are not meant to be rules to check off, but rather thoughts [00:02:00] to challenge and change us.

[00:02:03] Proverbs 22 verses 1 through 2, 8 and 9 and 22 and 23 say, A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold. The rich and the poor have this in common, the Lord is the maker of them all. Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of anger will fail.

[00:02:25] Those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor. Do not rob the poor, because they are poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate. For the Lord pleads their cause, and despoils of life those who despoil them. This is continuing that journey into the wisdom literature, where we talk about How to This literature informs our life.

[00:02:51] This part of the Bible invo involves and informs our life. And in this case, we've got different little couplets from Proverbs 22, [00:03:00] all of which are meant to point us towards how to engage in making wisdom driven decision making. This is a different idea. This isn't looking at your life from a data driven point, but instead.

[00:03:15] of looking at facts and research and surveys. Not that those things are bad, but instead looking at perspectives of trusted sources. Looking at wisdom driven decision making is around discerning what God's teachings are saying and what makes a good life from that point of view. And often when we find these passages in Proverbs, they go against popular opinion.

[00:03:44] an attempt to ground us in divine wisdom for building the kingdom of God or building the kingdom here on earth or relating to other people as well as ourselves and God. So [00:04:00] last week we used the Song of Solomon and talked a little bit about how there's different tools that we use for planning for a trip.

[00:04:09] When you go through Proverbs, it would be really clear very quickly that this is not a road map, that you're meant to check off and follow first verse 1, then verse 2, then verse 3, then verse 4, and so on. Because if you did that, you're going to find that sometimes the Proverbs contradict one another, sometimes they have a sarcastic, almost edgy kind of tone, and they're most certainly not given by a single Arthur.

[00:04:35] at a single time in the order that we have them today. Rather, they're a collection of sayings, of teachings. Think of them as almost that wisdom that gets passed down from your grandma, your great grandma, that gets encoded into the family tree. They are corrections that we make. The truth is, think about it.

[00:04:58] If you're following a map and you're [00:05:00] heading from point A to point B, or even following a GPS like we do in modern times, Occasionally, you end up getting rerouted. You discover along the way that maybe there was a road close that hasn't been updated in the GPS yet, or maybe there's traffic that you didn't see coming, or maybe it's just a quick detour to do something else, but yet you can go off track and then be brought back onto track.

[00:05:25] You can respond to changes in the environment and make sure that the path that you follow is still the core path. It's still heading towards true north. That at the end of the day, the final destination is the one that your eyes are on, and you're still going to get there, though you may swerve a little bit along the route.

[00:05:48] This is sort of part of what Proverbs is about. It's about checking in to make sure that you're still heading towards true north. There's another way to look at it, too. Think of Proverbs as [00:06:00] almost exercises that we're given to practice our own knowledge. way of relating to God, to each other, and to ourselves.

[00:06:12] I don't know if you've ever practiced, whether it's a musical instrument or maybe a sport or other activity, they often give us little drills to work on particular skills or styles. With a musical instrument, you may sit down and play a particular drill five, 10, 15, 20, a hundred times. With a sport, you may practice the same move over and over again.

[00:06:37] Sometimes you're meant to practice a technical skill. Other times it's about learning something about the techniques that you use, that are more about the feeling and the rhythm and working together and those different things. These verses are like that. They're little collections of wisdom that we're meant to [00:07:00] study and to try and to do until eventually they become so natural, so internalized, so part of how we are and how we think that we do it without even thinking about it.

[00:07:15] Most of the time, we forget what wisdom we've been taught and instead just live out the wisdom. That's the goal. That's what we're trying to do. It's why you practice free throws in basketball until they become natural. Why you practice playing a particular piece of music until it becomes natural, until it becomes second nature.

[00:07:40] The same thing is meant to be doing This with Proverbs you're meant to study it, not just to memorize it, not just to check it off as like it's your to do list. I've been generous today. I haven't oppressed the poor today. I've done this. But instead, to actually have it challenge our daily life, challenge what we see, challenge what we [00:08:00] say, make us think again.

[00:08:02] Wait, have I done something today that robbed the poor? maybe even something that I didn't think of in that way. Have I sown injustice? Because at the end of the day, remember the rich and the poor have this in common, the Lord is the maker of them all. The idea that we're all at our core children of God, I think we lose sight of that so often today.

[00:08:29] We end up struggling and saying this person is worthy and that person is not when the truth is we are all worthy. We lose sight of the fact that in taking care of ourselves, we often end up abusing others, not through evil, not through intent, but just through inattention, through inaction, through neglect.

[00:08:53] And the Proverbs are meant to challenge us so that we actually think about those things each and every day. [00:09:00] I've had several periods in my life where I've challenged myself to read one proverb a day, each morning, and continue to do that until I got to the end of Proverbs and then start again at the beginning, and do that over and over again.

[00:09:15] It's an exercise that I highly recommend because it helps you begin to reflect and internalize some of these contradictory passages that aren't only contradictory to each other, but almost all of them are contradictory to how we live our lives in today's world. And that's part of the key, because I think so often we say that we want to live with biblical roots.

[00:09:38] We say that we want to live the way that God has taught us to do it, but then we don't actually look at that. what we're being told to do. Instead, we take what we already want to do and project that onto the Bible. And Proverbs and the wisdom literature is meant to challenge us and keep us from being able to do [00:10:00] that and make us uncomfortable.

[00:10:04] Thanks for listening.

[00:10:11] Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor, go over to facebook. com slash inspired stewardship and like our Facebook page and market.

[00:10:40] that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there. Until next time, invest your time, your talent, and your treasures. Develop your [00:11:00] influence and impact the world.