Have you ever been with someone that needed your advice and even asked for it, but was not willing to listen to it? Do you have one of those friends that seeks your wisdom, but quickly makes it quite obvious that they are not really interested in applying it to their situation? If not, is it possible that you are that person?
Not Serious About Wisdom?
I have experienced this very situation on multiple occasions. In each case, the friend asked for advice for a specific problem. In some cases, there were several of us present offering wisdom. Unfortunately, the seekers made it pretty clear that they were not really listening. In a couple of cases, they did not even allow some of the advisers to complete a sentence before interrupting with reasons why the solutions offered would not work!
As I watched this happen, I was frustrated. I was frustrated for them because it was clear they were not hearing what they wanted to hear. I was frustrated for the people offering the advice because they could tell they were wasting time. I was also frustrated for the people following these wisdom-seeking leaders. Overall, these are painful experiences!
What Can We Learn?
After reading through Proverbs and considering what I could learn from these types of situations, I determined there are (at least) three problems that come from ignoring wisdom. I will address each of these three problems in separate posts. In today’s post, we will look at the first problem.
The first problem with ignoring wisdom is described in the following verses from Proverbs:
If you stop listening to correction, my son,
you will stray from the words of knowledge.
– Proverbs 19:27The one who gives an answer before he listens—
this is foolishness and disgrace for him.
– Proverbs 18:13The wise store up knowledge,
but the mouth of the fool hastens destruction.
– Proverbs 10:14
Apply Wisdom Or Else!
From these three simple verses, we can see that failing to heed wisdom leads to some serious trouble. When we are guilty of ignoring wisdom, we can expect to face disgrace and even destruction. I don’t know about you, but that is not something I want to experience if I can avoid it!
Examples of this in our lives as Christian business owners and leaders can vary from small, seemingly insignificant issues to those that may even include life and death scenarios. While this may be true, most are going to fall somewhere in between.
Examples
Consider the business owner that is advised against investing too heavily in a risky new product without the appropriate cash reserves to handle its failure. What are the potential consequences for his decision to move forward against the advice he received?
What about the manager that is told she would be foolish to show favoritism to the attractive salesperson on her team? Do you see the path that this decision could take?
Trouble Looms
Regardless of the situation, I think it is clear that we all face serious consequences when we do not listen to those offering godly wisdom. I am not sure of the various reasons one might have for ignoring wisdom they sought out, but it is clear from Scripture that doing so is asking for trouble.
In my next two posts, I will describe the other two problems we encounter when we do not heed the wisdom offered to us.
Have you acted like this when seeking wisdom?
Have you witnessed it from the position of offering the wisdom?
What do you do to make sure this does not happen?
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