"Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom. A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself." - Proverbs 18:1-2
Every April, an event takes place that captures the interest of many. Especially football fans. In this event, college football players are selected by professional football teams and signed to multi-million dollar contracts. This event is known as the NFL Draft. Since 1936, the NFL Draft has grown in popularity. Football fans from all over this continent tune into ESPN to watch the draft take place.
A few drafts have drawn more attention than others. In particular, the 1998 draft centered focus on a young star who dominated in his college career. His name was Ryan Leaf.
Leading up to the draft, scouts and analysts were feasting on the potential of Leaf. And they were not exaggerating. The young quarterback broke many records for his school, Washington State University. His accolades include the following:- In his Junior year he averaged over 330 yards passing per game and threw 33 TD's. (A school record)
- He ended the school's 67-year Rose Bowl drought and helped bring the Cougars their first Pac-10 championship in school history.
- He also was selected as the Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year, was named first-team All-America by Sporting News, and finished second in the nation in passing rating.
Many looked at his college career as a success. Because of his success, everyone knew that he would be one of the first players picked in the 1998 NFL Draft. The San Diego Chargers saw Leaf's potential, and went "all-in" to get him. The Indianapolis Colts had the first pick, and the Arizona Cardinals had the second pick. In order to have the second pick, the Chargers traded away many of their first few picks. San Diego picked up Leaf immediately and signed him.
The rest of the story did not go the way that San Diego planned. In ten games that season, Leaf threw two touchdown passes and fifteen interceptions, passing for 1,289 yards and having a 45.3 percent completion rate, with a poor quarterback rating of 39. This guy was ridiculously horrible on and off the field. In interviews, he got in arguments. He even got physical with a few reporters. Leaf was eventually released by the the Chargers. He was claimed by a few other teams, but still showed no real ability to play at the NFL level.
Probably the most remarkable thing about the 1998 draft was not the story of Ryan Leaf. The most dominant story would eventually come of the man who was picked before Leaf. His name was Peyton Manning. What is remarkable to me is that Manning was said to be a less capable quarterback than Ryan Leaf. But when I looked deep into the mindset of the Indianapolis Colts, I see logic and foresight that went unnoticed.
When the scouting department of the Colts viewed Ryan Leaf and Peyton Manning side-by-side they did not see a lot of difference at first. However, they did not stop on what they saw on the outside. One scout had made mention of the character of thee two. The character of each man was quite different:
- Leaf showed pride in his abilities and spoke highly of himself. Manning was very humble and gave no credit to himself.
- Leaf golfed on his days off, and only did the bare minimum for gameday prep. Manning was dedicated and hardworking, constantly working on weak spots.
- Leaf expressed that he did not even like the game of football on one occasion. So we made our decision based on the character levels and also on the desire of the game.
As we look at the careers of each player today, we can say without reservation that Peyton Manning was and is the more successful football story when compared to Ryan Leaf. And the preceding example shows us how things that look the same, sometimes are not.
Before the draft, Manning and Leaf looked a lot alike. They both had raw talent and statistics proved them to be a good quarterback. However, when time pushed on, the outcomes were quite different. Why was this the case? Well, the same can be very true when applied to our lives in any area.
In Proverbs we see Solomon writing in contrast to vividly paint the picture of a wise man and a fool. Solomon does this in many instances in Proverbs and even through Ecclesiastes. And when we look closely, we can see what he is talking about and how this applies to us.
Through desire- The whole context of this passage hinges on these two words. This is the avenue by which we obtain that knowledge. How are we to obtain knowledge? Through desire. True desire. Not a fabricated nominal desire. Nominal means "by name only." If we say that we desire something, that doesn't mean that we really do.
I am not a basketball fan. I don't really like the game. Go ahead, shoot me! When I played basketball, I never really saw progress in how well I played the game. Why? Because I had no desire to play the sport, let alone practice it.
When we look at the analysis of Ryan Leaf by the Colts organization, they saw a lack of desire to play the game of football. And that foresight saved them a lot of wasted money on wasted talent. No desire means no progress.
A man, having separated himself- Even as I type this blog post, I have separated myself from the things that would otherwise distract me from accomplishing the task I wish to complete. When you really desire something, you act. The action you take should be separation. Separation from what? Whatever would hinder you from reaching the ultimate goal.
Seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom- And of course, when someone really desires something enough to separate themselves, the next thing they do is... just sit there and stare at a wall. NO! They seek. And because they have taken time and sacrificed what their flesh would want, they seek with diligence. So much diligence, in fact that they begin to intermeddle. Intermeddle means to take part in the concerns of. The concerns of what or who? The author goes on- ALL WISDOM. Now this usage literally means all available knowledge. This seeker is going to look everywhere for his answers. Notice also that Solomon uses the word "wisdom!" Not just any old opinion will do. No, the idea is to seek in areas that would provide you answers that exhibit godliness.
And, we get to verse 2. With a contrast there is always another side to the good. With good there is bad. With light there is dark. And with wisdom there is a fool. A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.
With the wise man, there is a desire. This desire fuels him towards wisdom. But the fool is totally satisfied with his condition. In fact, he is so satisfied that he "advertises" his intellect. That is what it means by "heart may discover itself."
Now let's think back to Ryan Leaf. Why did he ultimately fail? Well, he did not desire to progress in production. All he cared about was where he brought himself with his talent.
The beautiful thing about this passage is that it universally applies to our lives. The knowledge that we seek after could be in any realm of life. And this works in any realm of life. Think about it:
In your married life- Are you struggling with having a healthy relationship with your spouse? Well, the reality is that somewhere along the path of marriage, you have lost that desire to love the one you have promised to love until death. And if you are reading this, you are not dead. It begins with desire. You desire to be around him or her. You work on that desire by loving them no matter what they choose to do. What happens when you seek and intermeddle your life into theirs? What happens when you study your spouse like a book to try to find out what you can do for them? What happens when you separate yourself from that iPad/laptop, TV, friend, etc. What begins to happen is joy in your marriage. But what happens if you are simply satisfied with where you are in marriage like the fool and make no progress towards maturing your love for each other? Do you see the wisdom of Solomon's writing?
What about work? One may say that they are unhappy about their work situation. But they would be wrong in viewing their job as a burden. With unemployment rates the way that they are, one should be very pleased about having a job. And a true desire to be a Christian employee should propel us towards separation, and constantly learning how to be better.
Our walk with God is the primary application for this passage. A desire to be with God to build a relationship is a healthy thing. If that desire is not there, something is wrong. We have the Word of God at our disposal. Is there any greater wisdom? Or are we like the fool who is content with where they are?
To conclude this post (which has gone really long) I would like to use one last example:
Imagine with me 2 gardens.
One to your right and one to your left. We till these gardens and plant the same exact vegetation within the gardens.
What do we see? The gardens look identical.
Now the garden on your right we will leave alone. Don't touch it for 3 months. However, the garden on your left will be kept daily. We will water it. We will separate the weeds. We will make sure it has plenty of sunlight.
...
3 months have passed...
What do we see now?
Well, now the gardens don't look at all the same.
The garden on the right is full of ripe vegetables and fruit, ready to be picked. This garden is successful.
The garden on the left... We might as well mow over it and start over again. Wasted potential.
The potential of growth is totally dependent on upkeep. Desire fuels upkeep. The same is very true for our own lives; physically, emotionally, and most important, spiritually. Life does not have an auto-pilot mode. Only a fool would think this way.
Which garden is your life?
Is it bountiful due to diligent maintenance fueled by a desire to see progress?
Or, like the fool, is it unproductive and wasted potential?
Think about it.
-A Youth Pastor
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