A couple of weeks ago, I drug my poor husband to see the new Julia Roberts movie, Eat, Pray, Love, based on a book by the same name. Since I had read the book and like Julia Roberts, I really wanted to see the movie. I knew Brad was in trouble when we entered the theater and we were surrounded by lots of sweet white haired ladies and one or two of their husbands. He was a good sport, as usual, and we settled in. After watching Julia look for happiness and peace by eating her way through Italy and worshiping her guru in India, Brad poked me and asked if it was ever going to end. Meanwhile, I was squirming around in my seat trying to get comfortable on my bad hip, wondering the same!
The movie did come to a conclusion, Julia found love in Bali, and I have been thinking about it off and on ever since. I won’t bore you with all the details, but, in my opinion, it all boiled down to the struggle between earthly wisdom and heavenly wisdom. Mark has been preaching a series in the book of James and a couple of weeks ago spoke about just that struggle. Why do we listen to man trying to tell the world the right way to do things? It only takes a nanosecond to look around and see the emotional and physical results of trying to do things man’s way. The whole notion of political correctness is the perfect example of the mess we can get ourselves into when we do things man’s way. Addictions to drugs, food, sex, video games, pornography, the internet. Dead-beat dads, moms who don’t put their kids first, abortions, stressed out families, financial burdens, me-first thinking. Feelings of unhappiness, being unfulfilled, worshipping created things instead of the Creator. What has happened to us?
Job 28: 12-28 has advice about wisdom….true wisdom. I implore you to read the whole thing, but verses 12, 13, and 28 sum it up pretty well.
“But where can wisdom be found? Where does understanding dwell? Man does not comprehend its worth; it cannot be found in the land of the living. T he fear of the Lord-that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.”
Hmmmm……I hope one day I get to travel to Italy and feast on authentic Italian food. I would like to go to India on a mission trip, and Bali would be a delightful destination, but I don’t need to go to these places in search of the meaning of life. I can find that in the pages of my Bible, in conversations with my heavenly Father, and in living in community with my other brothers and sisters in Christ at Scott Avenue Christian Church.
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