Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm. Proverbs 13:20 NIV
The first church we pastored captured our hearts. Weekdays we were in the cozy, comfortable surroundings of a small beautiful religious mecca where we were students at seminary. Weekends we plunged directly into the struggling life of a Cincinnati community, not quite inner city, but with all the heartache and struggles of that description. Our church was small but loving, vibrant, and challenging. We were truly diverse in race, culture, and lifestyle.
Jamar was the oldest very responsible son in an absentee-dad family, a high schooler just beginning his senior year. He was well-liked, a class officer, but a few guys from the neighborhood who were edgy and “cool” in a way he was not, consistently dared him to have a little fun with them. He steadily resisted as his mother warned him, but the joking got under his skin and in his head. One day he was walking home from school when they offered him a ride. With mixed feelings, he crawled in the backseat, soon discovering they were driving erratically and not headed home. Within 15 minutes he heard a siren and saw flashing lights. The police pulled them over and searched the car. They found drugs underneath the back seat and all of his “friends” said that he had placed them under the seat when he got in the car.
What a hard way to learn a lesson! Jamar’s mother called us right away and his true friends pulled together and were able to get him help to resolve his legal issues within a few months. The arresting officer told him, “I believed you from the beginning, son, but you should know the wrong friends will ruin your life. I see it over and over.”
That’s the same lesson Solomon was teaching in Proverbs 13:20. Life is shaped by your relationships. The shaping doesn’t take long. As Jamar discovered, a misstep with the wrong person can alter your life forever. But most of the time it’s not overnight. Most of the time we are shaped and formed slowly, one little unwise step at a time. On the other hand, we become wiser and better one step at a time too, with the people we choose to do life with. You need to find and journey with wise people who have acquired this wisdom through pursuing a relationship with God. They have learned obedience to God is the wisest way to walk, seeing life through His perspective and Word. Look for these people and surround yourself with them and their counsel. They will help you learn to apply his Word to every situation in life. These friends will be humble, gracious, loving, kind, strong – but willing to be faithful no matter what. The blessing for being around such people is that you will become one of them. The one who walks with wise people will become wise.
- Where does my life need adjustment? Do I need more wise people in my life? Do I need to become a wiser person for those around me?