Just Ask It – 2 – The Alternatives

Based on the teaching of Andy Stanley (JustAskIt.org)

The title of this series of messages is “JUST ASK IT.” It’s called that because it deals with one single question that applies to almost everything. Our desire is that this would become the question every one of us keeps asking for the rest of our lives, and especially at the different stages of our lives. Because in every next stage of our life this question matters in a somewhat different setting and situation. It sheds light on the situation and helps us make right decisions. If you ask it, this question can save you a lot of money, a lot of time, and most importantly, a lot of tears. Perhaps the greatest regret of your life could have been avoided if you had asked this one question and then acted on the answer you gave yourself. The question is, “What is the wise thing to do?” Last week we examined this question, we unpacked it, and we tried to make it three‑dimensional — we asked it in three different dimensions of our life: in the light of our past, our present, and our future. Made three‑dimensional, the question looks like this: “In the light of the experience I have gained in my past, in the light of my present circumstances, in the light of my hopes and dreams, what is the wise thing for me to do?” We talked about how my past is not your past and your past is not my past, and that each one of us must answer this question according to the experience he personally has gained. In the light of what has already happened to me — what is the wise thing for me to do? Our present situations are also constantly changing — maybe you just got married, or you just started a new job, or you just managed to break free from an addiction. Whatever it is — in the light of your present situation, what is wise — not for everyone — but personally for you to do? And finally we talked about our future plans and hopes. In the light of where I want to be one day financially, in the light of how I would want my marriage to look one day — in the light of my future hopes and dreams, what is the wise thing for me to do? Because your past, your present, and your future are different from everyone else’s, and they are unique and personal to you. “In the light of my past, present, and future, what is the wise thing for me to do?” That is the question. Not simply what is right, but what is wise. What is wise is better than what is right. What is wise is better than what is legal. Not simply what I could put up with or what I could get away with. The question is, “What is the wise thing for me to do?”

And do you remember, I gave you homework. What was it? Simply to ask the question. Not to do anything else — not to do the wise thing, but simply to ask the question. I said that you owe it to yourself to know the answer to this question. And if you ask it before you make a decision about every invitation, about every opportunity that opens up before you, about every financial decision you make — and you decide, “I already know what is wise for me to do, but I’m not going to do it” — that’s important, because that’s how you learn something about yourself. You learn — and this is a little harsh, but it’s part of my responsibility to tell you — you learn something very important about yourself. And here it is: you are not thinking about your own interests, you are not acting in the interest of what is best for you. And it’s good to know this about yourself — that if you know what is wise to do and you don’t do it, you are not acting in your own interest. And maybe it’s good to ask yourself the next question, too: “If I am not thinking about what is best for me, then who is going to think about me?” But this is something we owe to ourselves — for every invitation, for every opportunity, for every decision we make — if I choose to be wise — what is the wise thing for me to do? How do I act wisely?

Today we will look at some of the possibilities. Because, obviously, you are not obligated to do what I tell you or even what the Scriptures tell us. Because God has entrusted the life of every one of us into our own hands — He has given us free will. But today we will look at the possibilities that Solomon speaks of in the book of Proverbs. Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived on this earth. He was so wise that even other kings from distant kingdoms came to him to seek answers to the hard questions that troubled them. He wrote the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs. And apart from the fact that they are the Word of God, they are three remarkable ancient literary works that are full of insight and understanding about life.

In Proverbs, Solomon speaks of four kinds of people. First are the wise. These are the ones who think about the past, the present, and the future and act wisely. Besides them, however, there are three more categories of people spoken of in the book of Proverbs. And I want to warn you that what I’m about to say may be offensive to you. When I’m done, you can be angry with me, but even so, I would like you to hear this. But I warn you that this may be offensive to you, because if you do not choose to act wisely, then you inevitably fall into the other three categories. Because there are only four categories — either you act wisely or you fall into the other three. I don’t know whether you’ve ever thought about it, but turning away from wisdom inevitably leads toward something else. And many of you have perhaps never considered what you are drawing near to when you turn away from wisdom. If you say, “I know what the wise thing is to do, but I’m not going to do it. I know what they say is the wise thing to do, but I don’t believe them” — then you fall into the category of the fools. If we place three chairs here to symbolize the three possibilities that Solomon describes in the book of Proverbs, then, if you do not choose to act wisely, you must recognize which of these three chairs you are already sitting on. The order in which we will look at the three possibilities is not the order in which they appear in the Word. We will simply arrange them in a logical order for the sake of presenting them better.

THE SIMPLE (Proverbs 14:15)

The first possibility we will talk about is the simple, or foolish, person. The reason he is simple is not because he does not want to be wise, but simply because he is young and inexperienced. The simple person is naive, he is ignorant, he is foolish. In some verses of Proverbs the simple person is called “foolish.” The simple person is foolish. He has no idea what possibilities lie before him. He is not bad, he is not evil, he is not trying to ruin his own life. He is just ignorant and naive. He lacks experience. In Proverbs 14:15 it says:

15 The simple believe anything, but the prudent give thought to their steps. (Proverbs 14:15)

This verse speaks about “the simple.” So these categories we are talking about are not invented by me — they are biblical categories.

In one of her songs, which describes the experiences of a college freshman, Taylor Swift, the American singer, says the following: “When you’re fifteen and somebody tells you they love you, you’re gonna do what? … Right! … You’re gonna believe them.” If you are a fifteen‑year‑old girl and some boy tells you he loves you, you will believe him — not because you are stupid, not because something is wrong with you, not because you are a bad person. You will believe him because you are fifteen. And this is not a criticism. It is a warning. The problem of the simple is a lack of experience.

The best passage Solomon wrote as a description of the simple is perhaps Proverbs 7:6-27. In this passage he describes a young man who falls into a huge mess, into a trap. What happens is like a scene in a movie where you hear the music — the soundtrack — and you see that the main character is about to do something terribly foolish, and you feel like shouting to him so he can hear you, “Don’t do it!” But if you actually did, the person standing next to you might look at you in astonishment and say, “Relax, it’s just a movie.”

6 At the window of my house I looked down through the lattice.
7 I saw among the simple, I noticed among the young men, a youth who had no sense.
8 He was going down the street near her corner, walking along in the direction of her house
9 at twilight, as the day was fading, as the dark of night set in.
10 Then out came a woman to meet him, dressed like a prostitute and with crafty intent.
11 (She is unruly and defiant, her feet never stay at home;
12 now in the street, now in the squares, at every corner she lurks.)
13 She took hold of him and kissed him and with a brazen face she said:
14 “Today I fulfilled my vows, and I have food from my fellowship offering at home.
15 So I came out to meet you; I looked for you and have found you!
16 I have covered my bed with colored linens from Egypt.
17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon.
18 Come, let’s drink deeply of love till morning; let’s enjoy ourselves with love!
19 My husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey.
20 He took his purse filled with money and will not be home till full moon.”
21 With persuasive words she led him astray; she seduced him with her smooth talk.
22 All at once he followed her like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer stepping into a noose
23 till an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare, little knowing it will cost him his life. (Proverbs 7:6-23)

The young man in Proverbs 7 thinks he is on his way somewhere he will have a good time. But Solomon says he has set out like a calf to the slaughterhouse, like a madman to his death, like a bird to its snare. He thinks there is food there, but in reality there is a trap. In other words, what this young man thinks will be good will actually be evil, will be bad. And we who are older and read what happens to this young man say to ourselves, “Oh, you are so naive! You are so ignorant! You are so simple!” This is not about you being bad, but simply about you lacking experience.

The way the simple person responds to wisdom is like this: “Nothing will happen to me. Everything will be fine.” But I want to ask you, “How can you guarantee me that everything will be fine and that nothing bad will happen? How can you guarantee the future? Because if you know the secret to guaranteeing the future, we could get very rich from it.” The young say, “Nothing bad will happen to me!” while the old, those who have experience, think of all the possible bad things that could happen in the situation the young person is heading toward.

Another thing the simple or foolish say is, “I can handle this.” You see, you think you can handle this, but I am concerned for you, because when I was in your place, I did not handle that situation very well. I am concerned, because maybe your older brother did not handle it very well when he was in that situation. I am concerned, because the world is full of people who suffer the consequences of not having handled that situation very well. So we have to be careful.

Another thing the simple person says when you counsel him is, “Oh, you worry too much.” Do you know why parents overreact to some things? Not simply because they are parents, but because they think about the future. “When you’re fifteen and somebody tells you they love you, you will believe them.” Why? Because you are fifteen. That is not bad, that is just the way things are. If you are under twenty‑one, you have no experience. And all of us who are over twenty‑one envy you, because you are young, you are in your strength. And we want to be like you, but we cannot. But you, who are young and inexperienced, you, who may be in the position of the simple and can easily be deceived — you must be careful and think about the consequences.

For example, you are not afraid of debt the way we are afraid of debt, because you have not been in a situation where you sank so deep into debt that you became a slave to the banks and had no money to pay your rent or even to buy bread. You do not have the experience to know what it is to be addicted to something and to be its slave to such a degree that you know it is killing you, yet you keep doing it anyway, simply because you cannot break free from that dependency. You do not know what it is for your heart to be so broken that you can never again trust another man or another woman. You do not know what the consequences can be of abusing your sexuality and damaging it to such a degree that you reach a point where you simply can no longer experience intimacy with your marriage partner. You have simply never been there. And we do not want you to get there. So, when someone who is older and more experienced than you tells you something he considers wise, realize that you do not have his experience and simply trust him.

The good news is that you can have something we others never had, something we would love to have the chance to have again, but our time has passed. But you can have both — both the advantage of youth and the advantage of experience and wisdom — at the same time. Both youth and wisdom at once — that is the best. You must not allow the fact that you are simple, naive, and inexperienced to ruin your life. You can have both — you can have your youth and along with it also have wisdom. But in order to have wisdom, you will have to seek it. It will not come to you on its own. You will have to ask for it, because you have not lived long enough to know what is best for you. I know this may be offensive to those of you who are younger, but this is the way things are, and if you accept it, in time you will be grateful to me for it.

In Proverbs 1:1-4 it says why this book was written. We advise every young person to read one chapter of this book every day and to meditate on it, in order to gain wisdom.

1 The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:
2 for gaining wisdom and instruction; for understanding words of insight;
3 for receiving instruction in prudent behavior, doing what is right and just and fair;
4 for giving prudence to those who are simple, knowledge and discretion to the young— (Proverbs 1:1-4)

In verse 4 a literary device is used that is called parallelism. This means that the first line and the second line of this verse are parallel, or have the same meaning. From this we can conclude that the prudence of the first line is equivalent to knowledge and discretion, and that the simple are the young. So, don’t be angry with me, but if you want to get up from the chair of the simple, you have to seek wisdom.

And finally, this is what I want to say to you, the simple. I know it is perhaps offensive to you to call you “simple,” but this, as I told you, is a biblical category, and all of us have fallen into it, and in some areas perhaps we are still in it. “Do not trade what you want most for what you want now.” Many of us would want, if we could, to go back in time to when we made decisions for our lives — the fruit of which we are still reaping to this day — and to be able to make those decisions with the thought of what is wise to do in the light of our future hopes and dreams. If we had thought about this, if we had been focused on our future, then we would not have traded what we wanted now for what we wanted most. So, if you want something most, do not trade it for something you want now.

And finally, when we speak of the simple, let me repeat to you again that you can have both — both the preciousness of youth, which we all envy, and the preciousness of wisdom, at the same time. But you will have to seek wisdom. You will have to refuse to drift with the current of your culture and to do things that none of your friends will encourage you to do. For every opportunity, invitation, and decision you have to make, you will have to stop and ask yourself the question, “In the light of the experience I have already gained, in the light of my present circumstances and my future hopes and dreams, what is the wise thing for me to do?”

THE FOOL (Proverbs 26:11)

So, if you are not sitting on the chair of the wise, you are inevitably sitting on one of the other three chairs, and perhaps it is the chair of the simple. But there is one more possibility. The second category Solomon speaks of is the fool. So the second chair is the chair of the fool. The difference between the simple and the fool is that the fool knows what will follow, but he does not care about the consequences. If you talk with the fool, your conversation with him would look like this:

• Do you know that what you are doing will hurt you?
• Yes.
• And will you do it?
• Yes.
• Why?
• Because I don’t care about the consequences.

That is what fools do. Such people already have experience — they are not in the position of the simple. They know what will happen, because they have made similar mistakes in their past. But even so, they want to repeat their actions, because they do not care about the consequences. Solomon calls such people “fools.” Some of you are listening to me right now, and I can sense your thoughts. You understand that you are in the position of the fool — doing something over and over, even though you know what the consequences will be — but you say to yourself, “I don’t care. I am a fool. My wife already knows it. And if you want to know, we have already talked about it.” She tells you not to do it again, because you know what will follow, but you do it anyway. But here is what Solomon tells you — the man who had more money than you ever dreamed of and did things you cannot even imagine, so he is a step or two above you. Here is what he says. I know it is offensive to you, but here is what he says (Proverbs 26:11):

11 As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly. (Proverbs 26:11)

Can you picture it? Some time ago we had a dog named Gina, and she used to do these things. The first time I saw her do this, I was shocked. Do you see this picture in your head? Have you ever seen a dog do it — a dog that returns to its vomit and starts licking it? It’s true. “A dog returns to its vomit.” And in exactly the same way the fool repeats his folly. If we talk with him, we can say to him:

• The last time you did it, do you remember what happened?
• Yes. I was there.
• And you’ll do it again?
• Yes.
• Why?
• Well, because I am a fool, and this is what fools do. We go back to the mess we’ve made and repeat it.

In Proverbs 10:23 Solomon says:

23 A fool finds pleasure in wicked schemes. (Proverbs 10:23)

If we say to him:

• Don’t you remember how long it took you to recover from the terrible situation you had fallen into before?

He says:

• Yes, I remember, but it was fun!

This might be some young girl who got burned by falling in love with some good‑for‑nothing who dumped her, and now she is falling in love again with someone who cannot cope with life. And her parents say:

• Don’t you remember what happened last time? Don’t you remember how you got burned?

And she says:

• Yes, I remember. But it was nice, it was cool, it was fun.
• But it’s like returning to your vomit.
• No. It’s not vomit. It’s “fun”!

It is “fun,” because for the fool to repeat his own folly is “fun” (Proverbs 10:23)!

23 A fool finds pleasure in wicked schemes. (Proverbs 10:23)

You may think this does not apply to you. But hold on a moment. If you have an area in your life about which you say, “I know it’s wrong, but I’m going to do it anyway,” Solomon will tell you that you are a fool, because this is what fools do. The fool knows the difference between right and wrong, but he simply does not care whether what he is doing is good or evil. The fool even knows what the consequences will be of doing something wrong. But he does not care. If you are a judge and you see the same people in your courtroom who are there again and again and again and have become repeat offenders, they are not there because they are simple or naive. They are there because they are fools.

If you have habits that are slowly destroying your body, you are a fool. And you can say to me, “You’re calling me a fool!? I will never set foot in your church again.” Yes! You will! And do you know when? When you are healed from your folly. The cure, or the remedy, for the simple is time. If you are in the position of the simple, in time you will gain experience — you will grow wise. Even though as young people we may be naive and ignorant, in the end we grow up and understand that “When you’re fifteen and somebody tells you they love you, you don’t necessarily have to believe them. I get it. I’ve grown up.” Unfortunately, however, the cure for the fool is not simply time, but tragedy — when something tragic happens in his life. This is what Solomon says. This is what we who have more experience have seen. You cannot teach the fool. What can you tell him? He already knows everything. You can tell him, “Don’t you know that one plus one equals two?” And he says, “I know!” Unfortunately, however, he doesn’t care. And when he acts foolishly again and again, he reaches a state that is called tragedy, a state that God’s Word calls “calamity.”

And for those of you who are sitting on the chair of the fool, those of you who say, “I don’t care,” here is one more thing you would do well to know. This, of course, will not change you if you keep on being a fool and do not grow wise. You may think, “But through what I do, I am not hurting anyone else — only myself.” But what actually happens is that your folly blinds you to your own selfishness. Because in Proverbs 13:20 Solomon says:

20 Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm. (Proverbs 13:20)

The “companion” of the fool is the one who is in his company. This can be the husband, the wife, the father, the mother, the brother, the sister, the employer, the friend of the fool. The tragedy of the fool is that when he suffers, it is not only he who suffers, but everyone around him. So, if you are a fool, you will undoubtedly hurt others around you as well. And then you can say, “But I didn’t do it on purpose — I didn’t mean to!” That may be so, but it still keeps hurting. Because Solomon says that “a companion of fools suffers harm.” This is why your parents — the parents of those of you who are younger — are especially sensitive about who your friends are. Because my child may be the wisest child in the world. But if he is the friend of a fool — what does it say? “A companion of fools suffers harm.” They will suffer. Why? Because fools do not care. And if they do not care about their own body, they will not care about your body either. And if they do not care about their own finances, the last thing they will care about is your finances. And if they do not care about their own future, the last thing they will care about is your future. The fool says, “I know, I know, I know… But who cares? Let’s just do it.”

So, let us think this morning, which category have we fallen into? Whether we are in the category of the simple and foolish. Whether we are in the category of the fool who repeats his follies, or we are in the third category.

THE MOCKER (Proverbs 9:7-8)

The last category is the person you do not want to have as an employer. This is the person you would not want to be married to. This is the mocker, or the scoffer. The mocker is a fool on steroids — that is, he is puffed up and enlarged even more. He not only knows the difference between good and evil and does not care. But this is the person who will mock those who do what is right. In fact, we have almost no mockers in the church. Because the moment they hear that you go to church, they will begin to mock you and scoff at you for it. The moment you invite him to church, the mocker will tell you, “Really!? To church!? That’s great, that’s wonderful! I’ll come with you to church. And what will we do there?!” and he will begin to mock you. This is a person who is critical, who is arrogant, who looks down on others. He will always try to throw you off balance. Just when you think you are in a good relationship with him, he will throw you off balance. These people control the conversation most of the time. They know everything… If you work for such a person, you will always feel as if you have no solid ground under your feet. They always present themselves as the smartest person in the room, though they are not. But they use the knowledge they have in order to control, control, control others. They are critical, critical, critical. And they control the world they live in through their ceaseless criticism of everything around them — through cynicism and arrogance. I hope you are not married to such a person, because if you are — woe to you! And if you work for such a person, I simply feel sorry for you.

And if you are such a person, not only do you not care about what I am saying, you have already decided what you will say to me in private. Perhaps you are even already having this conversation in your head. Because you think you are smarter than me.

What are we to do with such people who are scoffers or mockers? Look at what it says in Proverbs 9:7-8:

7 Whoever corrects a mocker invites insults; whoever rebukes the wicked incurs abuse.
8 Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you. (Proverbs 9:7-8)

You cannot correct him. He will even hate you if you try to correct him. Perhaps as we read these verses, you are already thinking of someone like this. He does not listen to you, you cannot argue with him, and the moment you begin to talk about something he does not like, he jumps on you. Because he controls the conversation through cynicism and a mocking attitude and always thinks he is the smartest of all. And I did not want to share this with you at first, because it is so harsh, but Solomon, the wisest man on earth, tells us, “Such a person — a mocker — simply cast him out of your life! There is nothing you can do for him. For him there is no hope.” It is not God who says this, because with God there is hope for everyone, but it is Solomon who says it. “I tell you from experience: if you have someone around you who is a mocker — good luck to you! Because you cannot convince him to change. You cannot show him information about which he would say, ‘Oh, I didn’t know that!’, because he knows everything.” Because he is soured by insecurity, sheer arrogance, or something that happened in his past, and he wants to control everyone around him through his cynicism and mocking attitude. He is a mocker, a scoffer, and it is almost impossible to have a friendly relationship with such a person.

That was the third category. So, to sum up, this is what Solomon tells us:

• Correct the simple, and he will not understand you.
• Correct the fool, and he will ignore you.
• Correct the mocker, and he will hate you.
• Correct the wise, and he will thank you.

The wise will thank you, because he seeks to gain understanding. He looks at things in a larger context. He knows what he knows and realizes what he does not know. The wise person is a learner. He is constantly striving — either to become better — or, if he is a Christian, to draw nearer and nearer to his Heavenly Father and to become like Jesus.

THE SPEECH OF WISDOM (Proverbs 1:20-33)

Sooner or later, everyone who sits on any of these three chairs will need wisdom. The problem is that if you sit too long on any of these three chairs, a moment will come when you will cease to recognize wisdom. You will not be able to hear wisdom or to find it. Your situation may become hopeless. Not from the standpoint of God’s love. That has nothing to do with it. But it has everything to do with your experience as a human being. At the very beginning of the book of Proverbs, Solomon paints wisdom as a woman who walks through the city square, and she cries out, “Who wants wisdom? Who wants wisdom? Come and take it! Come and take it!” And he personifies wisdom as a woman who calls out to the people on the street. And we will finish by reading the first verses of the book of Proverbs, and you try to find yourself — where you are in this whole scheme. Are you sitting on the chair of the simple, on the chair of the fool, or on the chair of the mocker? This is not God speaking in this passage — this is wisdom. Solomon says: I have observed the various people on this earth — I have observed the simple, the fools, and the mockers. And he tells us — if you observe them long enough — here is what happens to them (Proverbs 1:20-21).

20 Out in the open wisdom calls aloud, she raises her voice in the public square;
21 on top of the wall she cries out, at the city gate she makes her speech: (Proverbs 1:20-21)

In other words, wisdom is available to everyone who wants it. And she says (Proverbs 1:22):

22 “How long will you who are simple love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? (Proverbs 1:22)

“How long?” — that is the question. Maybe you will have to mark it on the calendar — I will be a fool for one more year and then I will stop. How long? Until the end of your life? And look at what wisdom says (Proverbs 1:23):

23 Repent at my rebuke! Then I will pour out my thoughts to you, I will make known to you my teachings. (Proverbs 1:23)

In other words, wisdom is available to everyone who repents and comes to her. But look at what happens to those who refuse to accept her invitation (Proverbs 1:24-32).

24 But since you refuse to listen when I call and no one pays attention when I stretch out my hand,
25 since you disregard all my advice and do not accept my rebuke, (Proverbs 1:24-25)

And here is the challenge and the warning.

26 I in turn will laugh when disaster strikes you; I will mock when calamity overtakes you— (Proverbs 1:26)

Notice what will happen to the fools — “disaster,” “calamity.” And wisdom says to them, “When you do not act wisely and disaster comes into your life, I will mock you! Because you had the opportunity, but you did not take advantage of it! Mockers, you rejected me, but a day will come when you will need me, and I will not be there, and then I will mock you!”

27 when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you. (Proverbs 1:27)

In other words, wisdom warns us, “If you sit too long on the chair of the simple or on the chair of the fool or on the chair of the mocker, you will have to pay for it. Then you will want to go back in time and in your life, but you will not be able to. And when you begin to pay for preferring to be simple, foolish, or even mockers, in the end a day will come when you will need me, but it will be too late. I will not be available to you when distress and trouble overwhelm you.”

28 “Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me,
29 since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord. (Proverbs 1:28-29)

Pastors and counselors sometimes listen to people who seek advice after they have squandered their lives as a result of their foolishness and folly. And if you are a pastor or a counselor who listens to people who have reached the point of ruin, as you listen to them, two things will rise up in you that you will want to say to them. The first thing you want to say to such a person is, “Why did you wait so long? Why didn’t you seek advice earlier? Why only now?” And second, “What you want to have — you will never be able to have again — not in this life. What you want to have — you will never be able to have, because you have systematically damaged your life, damaged your soul. You will not be able to have what you have squandered — not from God’s perspective, but from the standpoint of the context of this life. Why? Because you sat on the chair of the simple, the fool, and the mocker for too long.” The counselor and the pastor can advise you, but they cannot rewind the tape. They cannot turn back time. You have sown your bad seeds, calamity has come, you have suffered — not only you, but also your “companions.” Because there is a spiritual law that is called the law of sowing and reaping. Look, wisdom continues:

30 Since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke,
31 they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes. (Proverbs 1:30-31)

You have sown, sown, sown, and when you begin to reap, a counselor cannot erase the consequences of your sowing. What you have sown, you will simply reap. No amount of money or amount of counseling can fix it or erase it. You will reap what you have sown. And if you have sown as the simple, if you have sown as the fool, if you have sown as the mocker, the harvest is coming! You will eat the fruit of your ways.

32 For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; (Proverbs 1:32)

If you have listened carefully to everything wisdom has said up to now, this should have frightened you to death. Things, however, do not end in death. There is a “but” that gives us hope. Wisdom speaks once more for the last time, and she gives us one more chance, one last opportunity (Proverbs 1:33).

33 but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.” (Proverbs 1:33)

It does not say that you will be rich, it does not say that you will have everything you want, but you will be at ease and you will not fear evil. So, this is why we want you to ask the question we are talking about. If we ask ourselves this question, we will be sitting on the chair of wisdom. The wise person is the one who asks himself this question: “In the light of my accumulated experience, in the light of my present state, and in the light of my future hopes and dreams, how is it wise for me to act? What is the wise thing for me to do?”

Mockers, you will have to admit that you are not the smartest people in the room. Fools, for you this means that you must begin to care, because this affects not only you, but also the people around you — everyone who loves you and depends on you. Simple ones, you are not bad, you have the possibilities of a whole lifetime. You can have both — both your youth and wisdom. But you will not be able to manage on your own. You must ask yourself the question: “In the light of my past experiences, my present situation, and my future hopes and dreams, God, what is the wise thing for me to do?”

God, break in us what keeps us from surrendering fully to You — break our pride, our selfishness, and the deceit of sin within us. Give us wisdom to change what we can and the courage to keep asking the question of wisdom again and again and to act according to the answer we give ourselves.