Wisdom has built her house;

she has hewn out its seven pillars.

She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine;

she has also set her table.

Proverbs 9:1-2

The woman Folly is loud;

she is undisciplined and without knowledge.

Proverbs 9:13

Wisdom and Folly side by side, calling from the hills, promising gifts to all who respond.

There's effort in wisdom; hewn pillars, prepared meats and wine, a table set and ready. Focus and learning, with the hope of understanding, inspire the wise to greater heights.

Loud is easier. Attention without effort, words without thought. It captures the mob and flames their passions, increasing the roar of uninformed voices insisting they alone are right.

It's time to hew pillars, to stop, to study, to think; to find and honor wisdom before bursting into undisciplined action.

I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence;

I possess knowledge and discretion.

Proverbs 8:12

Knowledge with discretion. We're packed with knowledge. At a click of the mouse, the awe of a newly discovered comet battles for attention with the best country artist of the last twenty five years. Tar balls travel to the Florida coast, and elections results are predicted before they close the polls. And that's just today. The knowledge pounds from internet screens, radio announcers, constantly scrolling bars across ever present televisions. Does it make us any smarter, any better, any more compassionate, or effective?

I'm not sure there's a lot of discretion to go with that knowledge. Does everything anyone knows really need to be announced to the world? Is everyone's opinion on every comment box adding value to important discussions?

Where do we gain the wisdom? The marriage of knowledge and discretion that lifts the dialogue from gossip to enlightenment, from anger and destruction to the construction of solutions.

There's no easy button, no website of answers, just deep thought, study, and prayer to seek the wisdom of God.

At the window of my house

I looked out through the lattice.

I saw among the simple,

I noticed among the young men,

a youth who lacked judgment.

He was going down the street near her corner,

walking along in the direction of her house

at twilight, as the day was fading,

as the dark of night set in.

Proverbs 7:6-9

Near, in the direction, as the dark of night set in. Where does temptation really begin? It's easy to claim a total ambush; a shock of never considered, carried away, happened in the heat of the moment before I knew where I was.

But there we were walking, eyeing the house, moving a little closer, cozy in the deepening shadows that allow no one to see. Choices begin in the daylight. A simple turn for just a little look, determines a destiny never consciously planned.