Proverbs 5:20 why should you be intoxicated my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress
I think back to the times just before I became a Christian. I had embraced so many different things that were leading me to a place of pain and hopelessness. Even my own best efforts at self-improvement were so pitiful and empty.
Drugs and alcohol were the mainstays in my life. As a result, I was not functioning as a normal person, but rather lived a double life and struggled with the tension and the episodes of paranoia, agoraphobia, and panic attacks.
I remember one day when my thinking was so messed up, my emotions so raw, and my state of confusion was so utter that I knew I was in a dangerous place. I had no ability to cope. I got on a bus in the bus station, planning to rush back to the place I was living and to hide away for a day or two until my thinking settled down again. I was on the stationary bus for around a minute when anxiety and panic gripped me and I jumped off the bus again. I hesitated, I could not stand being on the bus close to other people, but I could not bear being off the bus and left in the street.
I walked jogged on this cold autumn day to the nearest park where I made my way to the middle of a large section, and there I lay down on the grass, curled up as tight as I could, and prayed to an unknown God for help. I shut my eyes and looked for sleep. A light rain was falling. The park was empty other than a fast walking transient worker.
I remember sometime later hearing a young voice asking, ” are you ok mister” – I had been sleeping. I saw the edge of a school uniform and mumbled something back, wanting to be left alone.
It was early evening and cold. Getting back on my feet I walked home, around five miles. I kept my head down and forced my brain into submission, chasing the crazies into the shadows for now.
I stayed indoors for two or three days, sleeping and pacing up and down. I remember meeting a friend a few days later and he said I looked like a “refugee”, I was around eighty kilos in weight at that time.
Today when I see the troubled people I know a God of rescue and hope and want to introduce them to Him if I can.
If you or anyone you know is affected by these issues then call Lifeline 13 11 14 for crisis support and suicide prevention services.
KNOWLEDGE
We understand this to be an almost rhetorical question. The unstated question being “why on earth would we make this kind of choice, over the healthy choices that are so much more fulfilling, sustainable and rewarding?”
What is it in us that causes poor choices, decisions and actions, and where do these start?
There is an old adage – sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.
What is our trigger for poor decisions – what does our life’s mission statement look like and how do we keep the focus there?
The three disser’s –
- Disillusionment is a powerful motivator – we thought something was going to happen, but it doesn’t, the core issue though is that it was always an illusion – so being disillusioned was always going to be the outcome, and is actually a healthy position to get to.
- Disappointment is also a strong influencer, we believed we had an appointment, a date with a destiny so to speak, and for whatever reason, the matter evaporates and no appointment is held. Ah, but if there is genuinely an appointment to be experienced, then all that has really happened is that the timing has relocated.
- Disenchantment signals a change of direction, where the expected outcome has not materialised and there is an emotional reaction, we are no longer enchanted. The literal meaning of enchantment is “the state of being under a spell” – thank God for disenchantment!
So many issues in life can derail us, cause us to react emotionally, make rash decisions, and take poorly thought out courses of action. We embrace what we should end, we cohort with what we should cancel, and we become intimate with what we should eliminate.
There is an old saying – you have made your bed, and now you will have to lay in it…..
Let’s know who we are, who’s we are, what we have, and what our purpose is, let these issues become deeply embedded, so we stay away from the wrong beds.
UNDERSTANDING
Let’s pick one word from this verse to look closer at and see if that can help us gain a deeper insight into how God would love us to live?
The word in Hebrew for “forbidden woman” is pronounced “zur”, and this word appears 71 times in the Old Testament. This word is translated in the ESV into the English words, unauthorised; outsider; layperson; strange [gods]; foreign; estranged; another; alien; and winnowers. For us reading this verse we can see the idea of turning aside or going astray is implied.
WISDOM – what is your mission in life?
STRENGTHS THOUGHT: Ideation is a powerful Strategic Thinking Strength – you are a natural innovator, and love new things, new thinking and new theories. You are drawn to creative complexity and the bigger picture, you love to push the boundaries. You can prefer the novel over the tried and tested. Partner with people who will keep you grounded and be wary of unnecessarily creating more work for others!
Allan’s Unauthorised Version – [Why do you wander and swerve back and forwards my beloved and well-trained child – with things that enclose and bind you, and why do you hug things that will lead you astray?]
PRAYER: Father, thank you for today. Help me today to be aware of my choices, and my habits, and to hear your guidance and run after that with all I have, and not to forget this. Thank you!
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