I decided to begin reading a book I bought a month or so ago. I had put it on the backburner as I was finishing up my Beth Moore bible study, but now that's over so I have time to read The Divine Mentor. Typically I would take notes in my journal, but today I decided to write them here...first because it's much faster to type and second so I could share some thoughts with you.
In life we have two very effective teachers, both are great teachers, but neither is cheap. Both are effective, but both also require something from us. We have to choose one or the other, if we don't choose, well then the second will choose for us. These two teachers are WISDOM and CONSEQUENCES. Wisdom will amaze and delight us in her lessons, while consequences will leave us breathless (and not in a good way). The lessons we learn from consequences can cost us years. They may cost us our marriage, family, job, ministry, perhaps even our life. Consequences have a back end price, we always pay for disobedience in the end. We might think we're getting away with something, but in the end we will pay, and hopefully learn from our mistakes.
Wisdom on the other hand has a huge front end price. It requires discipline, obedience, consistency, and above all else, time. The biggest difference between wisdom and consequences is that wisdom teaches you lessons before you make the mistakes where as consequences demand that you make the mistake first. Wisdom puts a fence up at the top of the cliff; consequences visits you in the hospital after you fell off the cliff. Solomon put it like this "a prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences." We can also gather wisdom from others. We can learn from their mistakes. If we refuse to learn then we're just simpletons.
Think back over your life as I have this morning. What lessons did you learn from consequences? What lessons did you learn from having wisdom in the first place? I know that for me, my consequences often result from disobedience and lack of discipline. I need much more discipline than I currently have. This is something that God and I are really working on right now. Yes, it's hard, but I know that paying the consequences are much harder than if I choose to be disciplined now. Sooner or later God will have me learn the lesson and gain discipline and obedience. It's just like what my parents used to say to us "you can do this the easy way or the hard way." Isn't that the truth even when we grow up. We can do it the easy way by being obedient, fleeing from temptation, or the hard way; by doing things our way (which may seem easier at the time) but will always result in harsher consequences. I have more to post from this book later about two pains in life. They both can cause suffering, but one moves you forward while the other sets you back.
