Proverbs 22.2
“The rich and the poor meet together; the Lord is the Maker of them all.”
The rich and the poor meet together at birth and at death. They both entered the world naked and with nothing, and they shall both leave this world the same way.
When the rich and poor meet in this life, the rich tend to despise the poor for their (alleged) poverty and stupidity, and the poor tend to envy the rich for their (alleged) prosperity and arrogance. But they are both created by God and have no reason to resent each other, for they are quite equal in many important matters. They are born the same way, arrive naked, are unconscious and ignorant, are sinners before God, are vulnerable to the same diseases, are tempted with the same sins, and meet God after death with the same amount of assets.
They are both saved by grace through faith in Jesus crucified and resurrected. If they trust in Christ, they are both called into relationship with God, and they are sent by God into the world as agents of his kingdom. And they are called to be salt and light to bear fruit in their sphere of influence.
Proverbs 22.3
“The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.”
God has created a cause-and-effect world where choices have consequences. We are free to make whatever choices we want, but we are not free from the outcome of those choices. Wise people understand the following:
- Choices always have consequences. Always.
- Think about consequences before you act because you will experience the consequences after you act.
- Don’t equate the delay of consequences with the absence of them.
It is for this reason that wise people think before they act. They press pause, think, and gain clarity. They recognize when there is risk or danger, and they “hide themselves,” which means they avoid the risk. They steer clear of the danger.
Foolish people, however, do not press pause. They do not stop and think. They do not consider consequences, and they rush headlong into the danger. They suffer because of it.
Much of life is a battle between impulsive emotion and disciplined thinking. Impulsive emotion doesn’t consider consequences. Disciplined thinking does. An old saying that I heard many years ago applies here: Stupid is supposed to hurt.
