"Explore the Meaning"

Scripture Passage

Proverbs 1:1-4:27

Scripture Focus

Let the wise listen to these proverbs and become even wiser.
    Let those with understanding receive guidance
by exploring the meaning in these proverbs and parables,
    the words of the wise and their riddles.
                                                    (Proverbs 1:5-6 NLT)

Observation

In yesterday’s edition of “Zits”—one of my favorite comic strips—the teenage star of the strip, Jeremy Duncan (yep, that’s really his surname), is singing the praises of the latest cell phone. “Internet, text, mobile TV… With that thing in your hand,” he says to his dad, “you wouldn’t spend a second of your life disconnected!”

The next frame shows his father throwing the phone as far away from himself as humanly possible!

(See it here if you want a good laugh.)

I’m kinda there these days. This morning’s text confirms that. It’s got me imagining how different life must have sounded a hundred years ago…wondering how quiet life might have been in the days before radio, television, telephones, texting, and all the rest constantly demanding attention. It would have been easier—or so it seems in my imagination—to find a moment’s quiet “back then”.

And what’s that got to do with the ancient book of Proverbs? Well, only that these proverbs won’t be properly understood without time spent reflecting upon them. Proverbs 1:6 calls us to “explore the meaning” in these proverbs and riddles. That’s tough to do when the phone’s ringing, the radio’s playing, and—hey, it’s the “American Idol” season finale tonight…and then “24”…and then “Law and Order”—gotta catch the last episode of that, you know!

At some point in my life—indeed, more than just at “some point”…at many points in my life…regular, scheduled, prioritized blocks of time in my life…I’ve got to find time to think…to reflect…to ponder…to examine. Without those times where I back away and “observe myself,” really, my life starts to look like every other life around me. My life melds into this “gray blob” that is contemporary humanity muddling through its days in whatever lifeless form culture thrusts upon it.

I don’t want to be there. I don’t want my life to look like everyone else’s—‘cause I don’t think most people are making diligent, intelligent, informed, eternally-oriented decisions about their days. (Sorry if that sounds a bit critical. Still…) I don’t want to just “fill the days”—I want to “explore the meaning.”

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Addendum ('Cause I can't figure out how to post a link in "only" a comment):

Here's a link to an interesting article I ran across about spiritual retreats.  It's written for pastors/ministry leaders, but perhaps something anyone would find challenging and useful.

http://www.agts.edu/encounter/articles/2009summer/davis.htm