Life has so many facets, so many aspects, so many dimensions… it is full and complex. To live life well we must master much. As I read through this chapter, I found myself appreciating the wonder of living life wisely and well.
To do so, there is so much to master or it will master me. My mouth and the things I say. Slander and lying can bring down a life. I have to learn to guard my tongue if I am going to live well and live wisely.
Money and finances. Many a person trips and falls in this facet of life. I found myself mulling Agur’s advice to ask God that I be neither rich nor poor. Compared to the world standard, I am rich. By my country/community standard, I am not rich. I guess it is fair to say God has granted that prayer. But being somewhere in the middle does not by itself answer all the money questions of life. I have to constantly battle the leech within, “crying more, more, and better, better.” Contentment is elusive for me in my material world.
Lord I have so much growth still needed to live well and wisely.
Agur’s four amazing things, provides me ample contemplation; life truly is a balancing act, a high-wire act. Vigilance coupled with skill and passion and risk-taking and… is needed.
And his four things that are never satisfied warns me that problems are real, that sadness and pain happen, that life is filled with conundrums, which I will likely never figure out yet must live and function through.
And so my contemplations went as I pondered living life wisely and well. Oh the help I need to avoid the minefields of life and the skills I need to master the rest so that my life will be lived wisely and well. Who can instruct me, who knows the way, where can I turn?
This too Agur understands: Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him (5).
O Lord, to live wisely and well before You… this is my prayer. I cannot do this on my own, I need You and Your wisdom. There is no other way. Teach me, please. Amen.
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