Tiny Devotional for Sunday, 08-01-2021

A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, you are on your own.

To understand a proverb and a saying,
The words of the wise and their riddles.
Proverbs 1:6, NASB


Ah, yes: the words of the wise and their riddles. If some future blog archaeologist were to find this selection uninformed, what conclusions might they reach as to the purpose? Let me shed some light.

92.7% of the reason for this selection has to do with completing a pattern, by back-filling verses I skipped over before adopting a first-to-last approach. True, but not very enlightening.

The remaining 7.3% is because so MUCH of wisdom is a riddle. 

It’s an intentional riddle to the observer. The intent is to create a desire to understand, and by doing so, allow the naïve to pay a price to become wise, and therefore EARN wisdom, without having to risk life and limb. We tend not to value things that cost us nothing, you see. However, learning wisdom by life experience USUALLY means doing something foolish, and paying the price, and that can be crippling or lethal. So, we pose wisdom as a riddle. 

Here’s a secret: wisdom is also a riddle to the wise. 

“Why am I doing this?” the wise person wonders. “Nobody appreciates it, and all I get is grief on every hand.” 

This is true; and yet, the wise person continues to live wisely. Wisdom is not an exalted privilege; it’s a duty.

That’s the riddle the wise must solve, and the solution is found by doing the next right thing, every day; in adversity, and in the absence of any feedback at all.

We are yet holding on.


Peace be on your household.

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