Proverbs 15 - Life's Highways

There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. It is not coincidental that we read this in Proverbs 14:12 and it is repeated in Proverbs 16:25. It is also not coincidental that I have been reading Wild at Heart, again (3rd time). It is a great book and has helped me understand myself tremendously. I am on the chapter about healing a man's wounds. In this chapter John Ellerdge is talking about the wounds every man takes when they are young, in adolescence, and moving into adulthood. At the core of every man is to know if he has "what it takes". So frequently life, parents, peers, friends, women, culture, etc. tell him he does not. Another wound is added to the heart of the man. As good of parents as you may have had, or as bad, all men still get wounded. These wounds pile up over our lifetime and lead us down a very lonely, desperate road. This chapter speaks deeply to my heart as I have suffered great wounds over my life and like all men I have hidden them and pretended they did not hurt. It has taken me a long time to figure this out and I have wondered for quite a while what was bothering me. I think a lot of men are going through life this way and most don't want to admit it. I still don't know the full extent of my wounds, where they came from, who inflicted them, how I am going to heal from them. But thankfully God does! The painful thing is that in order to be healed from the specific wounds we have, God wounds us where we were wounded before. In order for us to deal with and put away the pain, we have to go back, regurgitate it, experience it, deal with it, and move past it. In the few years or more I have been opening my heart to this leading and I can tell you it has been excruciating at times. I still have a lot to go but the prospect of cleansing this toxin from my life is worth it. There are things that God shows me that I didn't even know they hurt. I had become so used to the pain I was numb. I think this is exactly the death spoken of. We become spritually and emotionally dead. Angry, frustrated, unable to feel any emotions. I know God created me for a specific purpose. I would not be alive if he had not. With all of this junk, God cannot use me the way He wants to. He took Moses into the desert for 40 years to heal his wounds. Have you ever been in this place? Do you know how to give it all to God and let Him wound you in order to be healed? Are you willing to do this?

15:4 The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit
Anyone that has ever told you that you do not have what it takes is a liar. They have a deceitful tongue. God made you and God does not make junk. We all have to learn our special place in God's creation. We all need to hear the creator speak to us and tell us how special we are to Him. God's affirmation of who we are is an unbelievable experience, it is like a like a warm spa to a bruised and battered body. We need to learn to tune out the naysayers. We know who they are. What they tell us is not meant for edification, education, or encouragement, but is meant to tear us down, keep us down, and build themselves up.

15: 17 Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened calf with hatred
Have you ever sat down to a meal where the tension was worse that an overcooked brisket. It does not matter how good the meal is, how good the rest of the company is, one person can ruin the entire meal. The neighbors in my neighborhood barbecue a lot. Sometimes I go, most of the time I don't. Not because I am unsociable, but more because I do not like gossip, drama, and turmoil. Unfortunately most of these people are not Christians, or they are not behaving in a Christ-like manner. It seems that every where today people cannot live without having some sort of drama in their lives. Do you know those types of people? Drama kings and queens. They can drag a conversation or gathering into the muck in the blink of an eye.