"A Person With Understanding"

Scripture Passage

Proverbs 20:22:16

Scripture Focus

Though good advice lies deep within the heart,
     a person with understanding will draw it out.
                              (Proverbs 20:5 NLT)

Observation

I confess—this verse was the first, today, to capture my attention. But because I thought it’d be difficult to write about, I went looking for another. In spite of my efforts to avoid it, this remains the verse that intrigues me—though I’m no surer of my ability to understand it well (or write about it well) than when I started.

The thing is, this is one proverb that gets translated a couple of ways. The opening phrase has either to do with “good advice” (as it reads in the NLT) or perhaps “the purposes of a man’s heart” (as in the NIV).  (You can read several different translations by clicking here.)

So this proverb may have to do with drawing good counsel from others through wise questions and judicious pursuit of advice…or it may have to do with counseling others wisely and judiciously.

Either way, the thing I like about it is that it calls me past the obvious…the predictable…the expected…to thinking about life on a deeper level. I don’t think I’m much good at that myself—seeing “beneath the surface” to what’s really going on—but I really appreciate it in those who are.

There are blessings to being somewhat simple minded—to taking life at face value and taking people for who they say they are. That’s one advantage to the way I’m made. I won’t doubt everything you say or question every motive, always snooping around for what you’re *really* wanting or thinking or planning. If you tell me “so and so”—I’m inclined to believe it.

But oh how rich it becomes for me when someone else is able to make a simple observation about me, about life, about circumstances, about…well, you name it…that puts everything in an entirely new (and broadened) perspective. I honor “people with understanding” today, and ask you, Lord, to (1) bring more of them into my life and (2) allow me to serve someone else in that same wise and insightful way.