What ways are these?

“Her [Wisdom’s] ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.”
-Proverbs 3:17

I had rather mixed emotions coming into this section of Proverbs. These early Proverbs teach as general rules. You know, it’s like when you get a boss who tells you, “Come every day, work hard, and you’ll do just fine.” Well, as a general rule, that is true, but come to work wearing flip-flops and a Speedo, and you’ll quickly find that you’re the exception to the rule.

So I want to come to this verse and tell people, as with all Scripture, this is completely true! And it is. Proverbs, by definition, give us wisdom to guide us to desired goals. But chance has a hand in it too. For instance, obeying God may NOT bring us long life if following God means martyrdom.

But I also don’t want to tell you something that isn’t true. I’m not going to tell you that Jesus is going to give you flowers and sunshine all your days. The Christian life can be trying. In fact, there are several places in the Bible where it practically guarantees us trials (James 1, as an example). The walk itself takes us on a higher road than a normal man would walk. We are striving always to be more and more like Christ, and sometimes that means standing for the truth when a little lie would have gotten you out of the situation, standing up for morality when others laugh at you, answering His call away from everything that was comfortable, listening while your family complains that you have changed.

Sometimes His calls takes you somewhere you didn’t want to go. For many Christians, it meant going into death.

I am reminded of Jesus, praying and weeping in the Garden of Gethsemane. So much stress was He under that He literally sweat blood. After that, He was taken, beaten, scourged, tortured, and nailed to a Cross to die.

I don’t know how I would handle that. It’s hard enough telling a friend that he is seeking his own gain instead of God’s and He needs to stop it. That’s an awkward conversation, and yet one that love has to make. If you love someone, you have to tell him these things.

There are many conversations like that one that I haven’t had the strength to make. I’ve had enough people angry at me for simply talking about God, and yet so often I must, because I’m not at peace unless I do, because their lives depend on it.

Only conversations. That’s all they are. What then if I am called to death? Is that a path to peace as this verse offers?

We are not compelled to these things to earn for ourselves heaven. Only Christ can earn heaven, for the price of it is perfection – a price we cannot pay. It is only through His sacrifice that we can be forgiven, for He paid the penalty of death we deserved. So it is not for reward that Christians leave all they have to serve. It is for love. How can we claim to love anyone if we do not try to save them from destruction?

Like Isaiah, we know that most often we will fail. We know that most will reject Him. And yet we speak, we write, we go, we serve, we love, and we die.

I have wept for those who have denied Him. I have wept for them. But you know, it’s strange. The only time I weep for myself is when I did not try, when I said nothing. If I have spoken what I could, spoken truth in love, then I am content with what Christ is doing in me. I am at peace if I have tried.

Huh. Turns out this verse is true after all.