Fruitless Effort

Read Proverbs 1

Simpletons turn away from me—to death. Fools are destroyed by their own complacency.

Proverbs 1:32

Many nonbelievers accuse the spiritually inclined of being mindless. They simply cannot accept the leap of faith as anything other than abandoning one’s intelligence. However, God warns that those who abandon his ways in deference to their own are the real fools.

For example, consider a nonbelieving executive who climbs to the top, working eighty-hour weeks. This person would hardly be described as unintelligent. The word lazy is likely absent from his or her vocabulary. Yet, the Bible refers to such a spiritually independent soul as a complacent simpleton. The issue is not effort itself, for many people work hard at unbelief. Rather, the baseline for a fool is misguided effort. The thesaurus describes fools this way: ill-advised. They determine their life’s priorities by working hard at earthly things to the neglect of spiritual things. A fool can be a corporate dynamo and a spiritual loafer wrapped up in one person. He or she can achieve temporary earthly success and yet be destined for eternal failure all at the same time.

A WORD FOR TODAY

Even smart people can miss wisdom.

Dear Lord, I can’t afford to play the fool, relying on my own ways. Help me to look to you for guidance today.