For Wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; 

Proverbs 2:10

Have you ever opened a door and been surprised by what you find as you open that door? Maybe it is a wonderful surprise birthday party for you. Or maybe it is a surprise to find a clean and tidy teenager’s bedroom. Or maybe as you step through your front door and are outside you are surprised by the chatter of a flock of birds. These and many other surprises are pleasant and lighten our hearts and brighten our souls.

But, sometimes the surprise on the other side of the door is not pleasant at all. Stepping into a room and hearing your name being used in a disparaging way is not the shock any of us want. Or we open the door to a hospital room and find our loved hooked up to yet another machine. And when we open the door to the family viewing room of the funeral home believing we are ready for what we are about to see just to realize we were not ready at all, then we are hit full on with everything that is not pleasant or bright. 

We open physical doors every day and all day. We may not realize that we also open and close spiritual doors every day and all day. We make choices constantly. Some are conscious choices. Deciding whether to go to Wendy’s or McDonalds or eat at home seems like a simple decision, but actually our minds and hearts and even our senses are opening and closing many doors so fast that we don’t pay attention to the creaks of opening doors and the slams of closing doors. How much money do we have? Weren’t those fries kind of nasty the last time we ate out? We have leftover ham in the fridge? It is rainy outside, but maybe it will stop. These and dozens of ideas and questions and memories flash through us instantaneously and then we decide: open the door to the garage or open the fridge door?

You may think there is nothing spiritual about deciding where to go eat, but, Ahh…there is! You see, all those little discussions going on inside of you between your mind and heart and your senses have an underpinning of knowledge and understanding wrapped up with a deep foundation of wisdom OR the lack of any of these. Knowledge says that money is tight right now and it is pouring rain outside. Understanding states, you are tired and the kids are hangry and it won’t take long to make ham sandwiches, plus you can all stay in your sweats and slippers. Now, your wisdom comes in that has its foundation in the wisdom found in the Bible. 

All those sermons you actually were attentive too, and all the Bible stories you read to the kids and all the times, hopefully many, you prayed to and worshiped your heavenly Father has given you His wisdom and that wisdom takes in all of the knowledge; and all of the understanding rattling around inside of you and sifts it through Wisdom’s sieve. In wisdom you may decide to stay home and make sandwiches. But, also in wisdom, you may decide to quickly have everyone change, check your cash, grab the pizza coupon, (pizza feeding the family more economically) and load all of you in the car, saying aloud, “A little rain never hurt anyone.” Your wisdom knows that cabin fever has taken over your family and that this small outing will relieve a lot of the pent-up stress within your home.  

All of this happening within us in just minutes, if not seconds. Now take this simple decision and multiply it by thousands! Decisions being made about work, school, home purchases, elderly parents, medical emergencies, a new baby, an unexpected death, a job promotion or loss…we all add to this daily and in a lifetime of days! Millions of decisions guided either by God’s wisdom or by our own selfish and misguided and prideful human experience and belief in fake news and lies swirling around social media. 

I know that no matter how fun or even how beneficial, when I make a decision that is not grounded in God’s wisdom, I regret it. And sometimes, that regret lasts a very long time; a lifetime long!

The wisdom discussed in Proverbs chapter two pleads with us to choose God’s wisdom so that our souls will be full of love, joy and peace rather than sorrow and regret of what could have been.