What We Can Do

 

This being the tenth of the month, I’ve been meditating in Proverbs Chapter Ten this morning. When I read the first verse, I wonder about myself, my life:

 

“The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a father glad, but a foolish son is a grief to his mother.” Which son am I? Am I making my heavenly Father glad, or am I bringing grief to “the Jerusalem which is above, which is free, which is our mother” (Gal. 4:26)?

 

Then I come to verse five, “He who gathers in summer is a son who acts wisely, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who acts shamefully.” (See also John 4:31 – 38; Matthew 9:36 – 38). What kind of son am I? What kind of people are we? It does seem as if we’ve abandoned our mission (Matthew 28:19 – 20). Can’t we see that there is something systemically wrong with us if sharing the Gospel is not our collective way of life? We deny our nature in Christ when we do not share the Gospel. Can we not see this? Our nature in Christ is to soar like eagles, rather than live off the ground like turkeys – yet we have been taught to live and think like turkeys (and the world eats us for dinner).

 

Well, let’s think about today, how can we live today? What can we do today? The problems of the world are so big, and we are so small. The vitriol of the world is so toxic, its poison so pronounced, its values so wicked, what can I do? What can you do? What can we do?

 

“The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life…the lips of the righteous feed many” (vv. 11 & 21). What we can do is to speak words of truth, hope, and life in Christ to others (and challenge as well!). What we can do is speak as the daughters and sons of the Living God. No matter how many people you meet today, you will not meet one person who does not need to be fed the Word of Truth in its myriad forms. Will I do what I can do today? Will you do what you can do today?

 

These verses have Christological implications (indeed, we can see Christ throughout the book of Proverbs), for truly Jesus Christ is the Righteous whose mouth is a fountain of life and whose lips feed many. Since in Him we have been made righteous (2 Corinthians 5:16 – 21), and since we are His Body (1 Corinthians 12:12), then as Augustine says, “As is the Head, so is the Body.”

 

We, you and I, are the mouth of Christ. We are the lips of Christ. We are the presence of Christ to those around us, and what we can do is to live as who we are in Christ, as eagles; and not as who we aren’t, as turkeys.

 

In Christ our mouth can be refreshing living Water for others, in Christ our lips can feed many with the Bread of Life – and we can do this today.

 

Will we? Will I? Will you?

 

There really is a lot we can do.