Warring Influences

The very beginning of the book of Proverbs starts as most would expect. There is a discussion of wisdom and how one may attain unto it. Proverbs 1:7 clearly explains, 

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction"

At this point, Solomon begins constructing a discussion of how "his son" should heed the instruction of "thy father." There is at this point shown that good influences are placed before our lives to aid us in avoiding the enticement of sin.

Later, we see a stronger look at positive influence when wisdom begins to cry out in verses 20-33. Here wisdom begs to be understood, begs to be known, and begs to have a chance to save others from the foolishness and simplicity of the world.

In between these two positive influences though, Solomon pens in verses 10-19 a very different type of influence. Here we read,

"My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause: Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit: We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil: Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse: My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path: For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood. Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird. And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives. So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof."

The placement of this selection makes a great case for the idea that Solomon is trying to get us to understand that wisdom is helpful in avoiding the enticements of sin and the negative influence of those participating in the activity of sin.

After all, if you are in a chapter that both begins and ends by talking about the positive influences of wisdom, why would you decide to take a detour through the negative influences of the world, unless you were trying to show a contrast between the two?

That's what I see Solomon doing here. Further, I see Him placing it rather obviously before us that we will be met with both positive and negative influences throughout our days and as such, if we want to avoid sin, or if we want to actually attain unto any sort of wisdom, we must be able to discern which is the good influence and follow it.

We must do as Solomon declares in verse 5-9, and later in verses 23 and 33,

"A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels: To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction. My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck....

Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you....But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil."

Bureaucracy at Its Best (Worst?)

A door was left unlocked at the White House last week, and a peaceful intruder made his way into the premises. As the intruder was peaceful, no harm was done. But there is now an agenda underway among the Secret Service to better protect the President.

So naturally, they are going through and just making sure everyone crosses their I's and dots their T's, right? (They're a bureaucracy; they'd be a bit backwards.) They could have prevented this intruder by simply keeping all the doors unlocked after all.

That would make a lot of sense as a plan of action; however, the Secret Service is a bureaucracy (I think you may be understanding that now), so they of course want to make wide sweeping changes that have absolutely nothing to do with the problem at hand.

Indeed, the Secret Service (as a bureaucracy) wants to block off more areas around the White House, essentially moving the safe zone perimeter further from the White House, and naturally check the bags of people who happen to be near that new perimeter.

Because all of that would totally be necessary just to keep an intruder from entering through an unlocked door. 

This illustrates the tendency of bureaucracy to overreact to every small event in ways that have nothing to do with the situation, and quite frankly won't even really help the problem of having crossed i's and dotted t's.

You expand the perimeter and still have irresponsible Secret Service, intruders will still be able to find the unlocked door.

As Dr. Marc Clauson writes,

"So it was probably fear of more bad publicity that drove this latest proposal.  But we have seen this mindset before , like every time the Transportation Safety Agency and Homeland Security come up with a  new scheme for supposedly protecting us from terrorists.  All too many of those schemes actually do little or nothing for better security, but they certainly manage to make flying (maybe soon taking the train) more inconvenient.  But again, this is part and parcel of the perverse incentives created within large and/or unaccountable bureaucracies."

Anyway (as I write this Thursday morning), I now need to go listen to Clauson give a lecture on church councils. Peace out!

Let's Celebrate the Workmen!

It's Labor Day! You know what Labor Day is all about! Let's celebrate the work that others have done to make the products that we use on a normal basis, by you know, not working! Because that's not ironic at all.

Yet that is what we have here today. When I walk the streets of Cedarville later today (in a crowd, Mom, don't worry), I will be bombarded with claims that Labor Day was invented right here in Cedarville. I doubt we'll ever be able to actually verify those claims, but I probably shouldn't say that to a local.

But on a serious note, why do we celebrate labor day? I don't get the purpose. Sure, I understand a little of the history regarding the workmen going underappreciated in the past, but I still don't see how Labor Day actually solves that problem. Does Labor Day serve to incite gratefulness in our hearts to these workmen, better than Thanksgiving serves its purpose to incite thankfulness for everything?

I'd have to say that no, it does not. I don't think many of us care much more about Labor Day than just to joke at the irony in like manner as I did at the start of this post. But should we care?

Honestly, I haven't the foggiest idea, and I think in the spirit of the holiday, I'm going to leave it like that for now, and go celebrate without a teensy bit of labor. (Ok fine, I'll likely be studying because I can...)