It takes two to tango ...

I often wonder where certain sayings come from … who thought about “it takes two to tango?”  Did someone once see someone trying to tango on their own and decide that it was so horrific that they needed to point out that it shouldn’t be done alone?  I guess it seems self-evident to me.  There’s another saying that ponders, “what is the sound of one hand clapping?”  That one seems obvious to me … there is no sound (although my family … my uncle and as it turns out, our daughter – genetics is crazy … has somehow figured out some crazy way to do a one-hand clap).  So as you can tell, my brain can wander with the best of them.  But in the wandering I got to cross paths with an interesting reality that I think we sometimes treat philosophically.

Let me share where I’m coming from.  This week my reading plan called for Jonah 2 – 4, Proverbs 1 – 4, Isaiah 14 – 20, Ezekiel 8 – 14.  I have to admit, I’m a huge fan of Proverbs and will probably camp out there in my next several weeks’ messages as I read through it.  The reason is that … and Solomon opens up chapter 1 explaining as such … their purpose is to share God’s wisdom with us.  The thing is, it takes two to tango.  Proverbs 1:20-25 says …

Wisdom shouts in the streets.  She cries out in the public square.  She calls to the crowds along the main street, to those gathered in front of the city gate:  “How long, you simpletons, will you insist on being simpleminded?  How long will you mockers relish your mocking?  How long will you fools hate knowledge?  Come and listen to my counsel.  I’ll share my heart with you and make you wise.  “I called you so often, but you wouldn’t come.  I reached out to you, but you paid no attention.  You ignored my advice and rejected the correction I offered.”

Just because we listen, that doesn’t mean we hear.  Just because we look doesn’t mean we see.  Both of those pertain to our procurement of knowledge and / or wisdom as the passage above suggests. 

It seems like today we’ll look to anything to find wisdom, oftentimes not realizing that what we’re seeking out is false and unable to suffice.  We say we should just follow our hearts, but our hearts lie to us … they provide neither wisdom nor knowledge but rather feelings and emotions which hardly compensate or stand equivalently.  The irony is, as is outlined in the Proverbs passage, wisdom is readily out there for us.  We just have to look in the right place.  What is the right place?

As the passage indicates, we don’t have to look long and hard for “her.”  Wisdom is readily available to us.  Wisdom is within our reach.  Wisdom pursues us.  This is what I love about the Bible, the book of Proverbs, and these verses in particular.  They convey wisdom … true wisdom.

God doesn’t hide His intentions and guidance from us.  He ensures that in varying ways, we have access to the fullness of life He intends, and this comes from wisdom.  I like one particular definition of wisdom I found … “knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action.”  God lays it out right in front of us.  But He doesn’t stop there.  Buried within each of us, whether we are Christian or not, is the inherent awareness of wisdom, but all the more, God blares it out and presents it straightforwardly to us.  Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, says that “wisdom SHOUTS in the streets.”  Wisdom “CRIES OUT in the public square.”  It “CALLS TO the crowds.”

So we know wisdom is right there before us, unhidden, completely retrievable.  Why don’t we see it?  Well, most often because we’re looking to something else, in another direction entirely.  Or, we have already chosen our own way, and hence are basically choosing to flat-out ignore what’s directly in front of us.  That is, we’re looking, but we’re choosing not to see.  It’s crying out to us but why is it that we don’t hear what it’s saying?  Because we’re listening, but we’re not choosing to hear.  For communication to happen, there must be a sender of a message, and a receiver of a message.  God sends, but do we choose to receive?  It takes two to tango.

How do we see and hear?  It starts at the heart.  I would argue that while our ears physically hear and our eyes physically see, it’s our HEART that SPIRITUALLY sees and hears.  Its capacity, though, is limited, so the first thing we need to do is keep an open heart.  Looking but seeing only what we decide to isn’t vision … it’s delusion.  Listening but hearing only what we decide to isn’t hearing … it’s deception.

God’s Word is the key to seeing and hearing … spiritually-speaking.  He makes His plan plain.  His Word works.  His message meets us where we are.  It’s all we need, but if we never open ourselves to its content, we’ll never find contentment.

In order to receive the wisdom God provides, we have to choose to look AND see what God is always prepared to show us, through His word.  That means we have to read it, and read it with an open heart and mind to what He chooses to say to us.  When we go to Him in prayer, we have to spend time to actively listen and be prepared to receive whatever He wants us to in His response.  If we seek godly input from other believers, we have to be open to how God might be talking through them.  He promises to give us the wisdom our lives need, but we have to choose to do what He reveals to us.  It takes two to tango.

If you’re looking for wisdom, look no further.  Open up God’s Word.  Our Bibles are not intended to be coffee table decoration or dust-gathering artifacts sitting on shelves.  They’re our Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.  Bibles are meant to be consumed like food, and absorbed like water in a sponge.  In fact, take a month-long challenge with me.  Open up to the book of Proverbs and for each of the next 31 days, read one chapter a day.  It’ll take you no more than five minutes per day.  In the process, you’ll find a lifetime of insight, intellect, input … WISDOM … if you choose to look and SEE and listen and HEAR.   If you do, I dare you to NOT come away with incredibly valuable “knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action.”  The question is … will we take the action?

Looking and seeing, listening and hearing,

MR