Wisdom & Progress

SCRIPTURE: This is what the Lord says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ Jeremiah 6:16 NIV

QUOTE: “We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.” – C.S. Lewis 

THOUGHT: As I stand at the crossroads and look, I don’t hear voices asking for the ancient paths, instead, I hear the clamor of a riot, or the roar of an oncoming train. I hear a culture shouting at God, “we will not walk in it!” If you’ve listened to much symphonic music that falls into the category of “modern,” you’ll hear it too. We’re watching a triumph of cacophony. Music theory suggests that you can acclimate the ear to more and more complex sounds until consonance and dissonance become indistinguishable. There’s a term for it: “the emancipation of dissonance.”

The loudest voices in our world are very keen on progress. It seems like movement away from the ancient paths is the very definition of progress. Change for the sake of change. Pushing the boundaries until consonance and dissonance become indistinguishable. I think the world might say the object of all this movement – progress – is freedom. That’s the guiding principle: the emancipation of dissonance. That is a type of freedom, but it just leads to emptiness and despair. Nihilism. Just another type of bondage.

But what does wisdom say?

C.S. Lewis was a man on the path of progress. Just read about his early life, or watch The Most Reluctant Convert, as we did last week. A broken child with a brilliant mind who had no time for the fantasy of God. But God would not leave him alone and he finally turned around and rewrote the definition of progress: “if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.”

Wisdom is not knowledge, and it’s not the world’s idea of progress. Wisdom is about the ability to read an ancient map and figure out when you’re on the road to nowhere. It’s about the courage to turn around and move against the current, until you find the right road and rest for your soul –a promise of God to the pilgrim making progress on his ancient path.

PRAYER: Oh God, through Jeremiah you promised rest for the soul for anyone who would seek you using the most ancient map the world knows. You are God. You created us and have a stake in the outcome of our lives. Give us wisdom as we walk out faith.