Today marks the beginning of the third month of my Proverbs 365 project.  It's going stronger than ever, and I find that I'm really enjoying this good, long soak in the wisdom of Proverbs.  Just like I did last month, I thought it might be interesting to highlight three of my personal favorites from the past month of the project.

My favorite Proverbs-related story from the last month would have to be P2306 - Coffee Cake Conflict.  In the post, I share a personal anecdote from my university years which helps to illustrate Proverbs 23:6-8:  "Do not eat the food of a stingy man, do not crave his delicacies; for he is the kind of man who is always thinking about the cost.  'Eat and drink,' he says to you, but his heart is not with you.  You will vomit up the little you have eaten and will have wasted your compliments." You really have to read the post to get the full effect of my reflections on the subject -- but suffice to say the story involves young bachelors learning to run their own household, eating nothing but coffee cake for dinner, and gift presented to a 20-year-old with a note saying, "Happy Birthday, you bitter old man." Follow the link above for the whole story.

Secondly, one of the greatest personal challenges that I experienced in the month of February came from reading Proverbs 26:11, which prompted my recollections entitled P2611 - Vomitous Victuals.  The title of the post is a direct reference to the Proverb itself, found in chapter 26, verse 11:  "As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly." As I meditated on this verse, I came to realize how I can foolishly respond to feelings of loneliness by sitting at the computer, obsessively hitting the Send/Receive button on my e-mail reader -- hoping for some sort of pathetic companionship from a glowing computer screen.  When the e-mails don't come, I get sad.  When I don't get many comments on my blog(s), I get sad.  But I keep going in a foolish cycle of loneliness.  "It's the same story... when I check my Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, and YouTube pages.  I scramble around the internet like a squirrel, hunting for nuts that just aren't there... " If you can relate to these feelings at all, I would definitely recommend following the link and taking a look at the post for yourself.

Thirdly, I think one of the verses which stuck with me the most from February was Proverbs 3:3-4:  "Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.  Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man." You can read my thoughts on this Proverbs at P334 - Love and Faithfulness.  Honestly, I'm not sure if my personal reflections in this post are really all that poignant -- but the Proverb itself is powerful enough to prompt us to question ourselves:  "So how do we get back on track with these core qualities of Love and Faithfulness?  How do we make these our calling card?  The necklace around our necks?  The tattoo written across our chests?" I attempt to start answering some of these questions in my post, and I would love to hear any other dialogue that others might want to contribute as well.

For a more comprehensive listing of the February's content, here are the titles of all 28 entries, along with direct links to the rest of the contact:

• P122 - Stuck on Simplicity
• P206 - The Key to Understanding the Proverbs
• P334 - Love and Faithfulness
• P414 - Traffic Advice
• P506 - Checking for Blind Spots
• P610 - How to Avoid a Hold-Up
• P702 - Apple of Your Eye
• P809 - Atheist Buses
• P903 - Lady Wisdom and Her Staff Team
• P1008 - California Ryan
• P1124 - The Wedding Card Dilemma
• P1216 - Wat Vervelend
• P1308 - Mo' Money Mo' Problems
• P1410 - Considering Condolences and Congratulations
• P1504 - Green Tree
• P1618 - The Prognostication Possibilities of Pride
• P1714 - Water Management is Serious Business
• P1803 - Downward Spiral
• P1919 - The Predicaments of Hot-Headedness
• P2029 - Gray Area
• P2109 - A Case for Separation
• P2204 - NHL vs. NBA
• P2306 - Coffee Cake Conflict
• P2410 - Feats of Strength
• P2515 - Bones Yes, But What About Bureaucratic Red Tape?
• P2611 - Vomitous Victuals
• P2711 - Prudence Not Panic
• P2809 - Love Triangles

And that's just February!  March promises to be another great month, so check it out for yourself at http://proverbs365.ericasp.com.

Link: http://proverbs365.ericasp.com/

In light of this morning's headlines annoucing the results of yesterday's ice-hockey game between the United States and Canada (good news!) and yesterday's professional-basketball game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Orlando Magic (bad news), I thought it might be interesting to copy today's post from my ongoing Proverbs 365 project:  P2204 - NHL vs. NBA.

Humility and the fear of the LORD bring wealth and honor and life (Proverbs 22:4).

Different sports have completely different cultures. The character qualities that are prized in golf (i.e. low profile, high self-confidence, clear-headedness) are completely different than the character qualities that are valued in American football (i.e. brash intimidation, team chemistry, sharply-channeled rage). And nowhere is this cultural contrast more clear, in my opinion, than in the differences between players from the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Hockey Leage (NHL). The NBA and NHL seasons overlap heavily. Both the NBA and the NHL have huge fan bases in North America (I enjoy both sports greatly, for the record). However, in spite of all the apparent similarities, NBA players and NHL players seem like they come from completely different planets, to hear them interviewed by the media. NBA culture seems to create players who usually come across as bragadocious, showy, territorial, and trash-talking. "I'm better than him." "In your face." "I got game and he don't." "He better get outta my face or I'm gonna throw him out." Many of the league's biggest stars are close personal friends with gangsta rappers (or occasionally even rappers themselves!). Throughout the past couple of seasons, two of the NBA's most dominant centers have developed an ongoing vendetta about who most deserves the nickname "Superman." It's just that kind of culture.

NHL culture, however, seems to create players who usually come across as very plain, unassuming, even-keeled, and "regular guy" (and not nearly as interesting as NBA players, in interviews!). Case in point: I recently read an on-line article about Ryan Miller, the goalie for the American men's ice-hockey team in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver (who also plays in the NHL, of course), which underscored the cultural difference between hockey players and basketball players. Through the weeks leading up to the Olympics, Miler had been repeatedly hyped as the Americans' best chance for success at the Olympic games. However, in responding to the hype, the star goalie responded with typical hockey-culture candor:

"It's flattering when you hear that," Miller told ESPN.com. "I don't know how many photo sessions I've had with the American flag draped around me or behind me; it's bordering on ridiculous. You know, I'm one piece of the team. I understand the whole concept of a goalie being able to steal a game. In these tournaments, everyone starts to hype how a goalie can steal a game; just like the Stanley Cup playoffs, everybody starts to hype how a hot goalie can win you a Stanley Cup. But the team in front of you has to play solid, and the goalie almost always reflects the way his team is playing... You're not going to skate through a tournament or win a Stanley Cup without a team that's paying attention to detail," continued the Buffalo Sabres netminder. "So I'm going to try and hold up my end of the bargain and give my team a chance to win. And if I feel I've given them that opportunity, then I've done the best I can, and hopefully that's good enough."

It's crazy to notice the different vibes for these different sports, isn't it?!? They both have their advantages and disadvantages. As far as sports and cultures are concerned you can't really elevate one over the other. But in real life, the Proverbs would suggest, it's much better to be an "NHL player" than an "NBA player." A person can get much further in life -- in business, in relationships, in personal reputation -- if they can maintain the attitude of a humble, unimposing, magnanimous "NHL player," as opposed to the attitude of a prideful, self-promoting, chip-on-the-shoulder "NBA player." If an NBA player tried to take up ice-hockey and bring his NBA attitude into the NHL's locker rooms and arenas, he would be ostracized from the rest of the team, alienated from the fans (who seem to appreciate the NHL's humility factor, even if it does make for more boring interviews), and smashed out on the ice at every opportunity. And this really seems to be the way that the "real world" works, on issues of pride and humility. The proud are destroyed eventually, while humility and the fear of the LORD bring wealth and honor and life. Yes, if your basketball skills are up to snuff, you might want to work on your NBA persona and see how that works out for you, throughout the rest of your life. But if they're not (and let me assure you: they're probably not), I would recommend developing your NHL persona and letting that guide you.

So how do we identify and follow the spiritual inukshuks in our lives?  How do we live by faith?  The most basic answer comes down to following the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who serves as our power for day-to-day living and spiritual interaction with God (and with other believers) and our means for obtaining spiritual wisdom.  1 Corinthians 2:9-16 explains this for us more fully:

It is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” -- but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.  The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.  For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him?  In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.  We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.  This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.  The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.  The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment: “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?”  But we have the mind of Christ.

So really, finding the inukshuks in life and determining God’s direction all comes down to having this “mind of Christ” (the Holy Spirit).  It's not a formula or a mathematical equation; it’s a spiritual thing.  The Holy Spirit is the ultimate trump card.  His leadership is most important!  But with that said... there do seem to be a handful of principles that we can observe in the Bible and from real-world experience for identifying the spiritual inukshuks around us and making Spirit-filled decisions.  In particular, I believe there are five main checkpoints that we can use to help determine the inukshuks in our lives and find the path being marked out by these inukshuks: (1) God's Word, the Bible, (2) Prayer, (3) Godly Counsel from Other People, (4) Circumstances, and (5) the Test of Time.

With actual inukshuks in the Canadian wilderness, Inuit hunters don’t just look at them and see a random pile of stones.  They know how to study the rock formation like a map and read it for specific clues as to which direction they must go.  In the same way, we can study the Bible to give us direction (see 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Psalm 119:97-99, 138, and John 14:21).  Secondly, real inukshuks are discovered through searching for them and consistently scanning one’s eyes across the flat, arctic horizon in hopes of spotting the next marker on the trail home.  An Inuit hunter knows that he won’t see anything if he’s not looking for it.  In the same way, prayer gives us spiritual eyes to see what’s in front of us (see Proverbs 2:3-6, Colossians 1:9-10, and James 1:5).  Thirdly, it's important to remember that an inukshuk is not just an arbitrary pile of stones on the tundra.  There may be quite a bit of variety in the way one inukshuk might look from the next, but there is an element of consistency as well -- stemming from the fact that they are a part of the Inuit culture, and people who are from that culture know what separates an inukshuk from just a bunch of rocks.  In the same way, our involvement in Christian community helps us in determining the direction God wants to take our lives (see Proverbs 12:15 and Proverbs 11:14).  Fourthly, it's significant to note that for the Inuit people, an inukshuk’s environment, placement, and circumstances are important in determining the inukshuk’s meaning and significance.  A pile of rocks in the middle of the wilderness means a whole lot more than a pile of rocks in the village.  Likewise, God can use circumstances in our lives to help prevent us from going wrong directions and steer us in the right direction for the future (see Acts 16:6-7 and Matthew 10:11-14).  And finally, it's important to realize that one inukshuk is not enough to guide an Inuit hunter on the entire path that he needs to follow.  Rather, it is the collective alignment of several inukshuks that mark the path, and the only way to know that you’re truly on the right path is to be patient and make sure that they consistently line up, pointing in the same direction.  I feel it’s the same way with spiritual inukshuks (see Psalm 27:13-14, Isaiah 30:18, and Proverbs 14:29).

In summary, I believe the better we can get at discerning these spiritual inukshuks and applying the principles outlined here above, the better we will be able to determine the Holy Spirit’s leading in our lives —- allowing us to make wise, Spirit-filled decisions.  At times, it will seem like the journey is incredibly long, with the inukshuks placed impossibly far apart.  But if we can keep moving forward in faith, staying true to the direction of the last inukshuk that we passed, we will reach our destination in God's time, and according to God's plan.

Today, I'm focusing on (and memorizing) the Proverb that says, "The wise in heart accept commands, but a chattering fool comes to ruin (Proverbs 10:8)."  It's reminded me of a ministry situation that I encountered about a year ago, which was very challenging at the time, though now I'd say is quite amusing in retrospect.  I wrote about the whole experience over at Proverbs 365, but I thought that today's entry might be especially interesting to regular readers of this blog, so I'm going to include a tease (an excerpt) here below:

...The Chattering Fool is dangerous, but unfortunately all too common.  I distinctly remember meeting a young man, about a year ago, who perfectly fit the caricature of the Chattering Fool -- and it was a frightening experience that will always haunt me.  Let's call him "California Ryan," for the sake of this story.  He had just moved to Amsterdam, in his early 20s, in an attempt to break his addictions to marijuana and crystal meth (Don't ask why he picked Amsterdam, of all places, to attempt such a recovery!).  He was lean and nervous, like you might expect from a recovering addict.  He had a vague, pencil-thin mustache and always wore a baseball cap.  He talked with a lot of "dude"s and "like"s and other classic Californianisms.  But his most remarkable -- most inescapable characteristic was his incessant chattering.  Seriously, like, the Dude never - stopped - talking...

To see how the situation resolved itself, you're going to have to pop on over to Proverbs 365. :-)  If the obvious cross-promotional ploy is offensive to you, I apologize.  But I'm enjoying the Proverbs 365 experience immensely, and I thought maybe I'd help you to do the same thing, too.

Do you remember that whole thing about February being an ideal month for a four-week trial period?  Well, perhaps you might be interested to consider a four-week trial period "subscription" to my Proverbs 365 project -- now starting its second month of publication and picking up steam as it goes... I've been getting so much out of this study already, and I seriously feel like it's getting better and better as time goes on.

I thought it might be interesting to highlight three of my personal favorites from the first month of the project -- just to give you the chance to get a taste of what it's like.

Perhaps my personal favorite up to this point has been Proverbs 16:32, which I wrote about in my post P1632 - Tribal Chant for Patience.  The verse itself says, "Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city." But this verse took on a much greater significance when I happened to be meditating about it on a trans-Atlantic flight, being the sole adult guardian of two of my children for a very, very long day of long lines and frustrating circumstances!  This was basically the scenario:  "One of them spills an entire cup of apple juice over herself and then sits there crying and shivering in the cold.  You've made the world's dumbest wardrobe choice for an 8-hour trans-continental flight while seated between two small children:  a white, long-sleeved shirt.  Still, you take off the shirt and drape your daughter in it so she can warm up again -- only to see it become flecked and drizzled with barbecue sauce and strawberry jam during lunch.  A horrible head-ache sets in.  And there are still 10 hours of travel-time ahead of you... " It was quite the day.  But this Proverb proved to be a life-saver (not just for me, but for my two oldest children as well!).  Click on the link above or below to read the rest of the story...

A second personal favorite can be found on my post from the 15th of the month:  P1513 - Can You Find your Happy Heart? I was reflecting on Proverbs 15:13, where it says, "A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit," and it reminded me of a recurring question that I've often considered for myself, for my family, and for people from my church.  Basically, it comes down to the realization that  "Our attitudes are not as objective or automatic as we often think them to be.  They have a lot to do with what we make of them." I had some really pathetic pity-parties for myself last month, and this Proverb really helped me to reset my thinking patterns.  And this post in particular also came in handy when I was put on the spot at a recent story-telling event at the Mezrab Art Cage, here in Amsterdam. :-)  Anyway, click on one of the links to read more about this particular Proverb...

Thirdly and finally, I might recommend P2313 - To Withhold or to Provide as a third sample of the first month of Proverbs 365.  I'm always happy to hear other people remark about how pleasant and polite our children can be -- yet, while I certainly agree that they're pretty special kids, I know better than to think that they're naturally predisposed to kindness and obedience.  Truth is:  they're sinners, just like the rest of us.  Through the years, Marci and I have had to learn and apply the truth of Proverbs 23:13-14:  "Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die.  Punish him with the rod and save his soul from death." And for any other parents out there, I might suggest that this verse is pivotal for establishing a healthy understanding of child discipline.  How can one do this, in a societal context where a physical rod is considered brutal, abusive, and even illegal?  You'll have to read the post to find out some of my thoughts on this question...

For a more comprehensive listing of the first month's content, here are the titles of the first 31 entries, along with direct links to the rest of the contact:

• Introduction to Proverbs 365
• P117 - The Antidote to Idiocy
• P245 - Questing Repurposed
• P327 - The Power of a Moment
• P401 - Father Knows Best
• P534 - Death in Your Pants
• P668 - Ants Are Awesome
• P718 - Whatcha Gonna Do When They Come for You?
• P822 - Primordial Wisdom
• P913 - Drunken British Hooligans
• P1019 - Enough Said
• P1121 - Solomon's Assurance
• P1210 - Cousins and Cats
• P1304 - Dreams and Determination
• P1426 - Priorities
• P1513 - Can You Find your Happy Heart?
• P1632 - Tribal Chant for Patience
• P1705 - Oh Pat...
• P1809 - Slackadaisical
• P1908 - Basic Soul Care
• P2005 - Drawing In-Laws (Among Others) Out
• P2120 - Choice Food and Oil
• P2211 - Positive, Poised, and Prosperous
• P2313 - To Withhold or to Provide?
• P2411 - Staggering Toward Slaughter
• P2526 - Dog Crap in the Ice Water
• P2609 - Safe Word:  Thornbush
• P2714 - The Crazy Christian Radio Lady and Me
• P2813 - The Gospel According to Solomon
• P2918 - Revelation
• P3001 - The Cry of a Weary Heart
• P3110 - Marci Appreciation Day

And that's just January!  I've been working one month ahead of schedule in order to allow for regular posting of the devotional thoughts, currently set for publication at around 8:00 in the morning (Amsterdam time) each day -- and I seriously feel like February is even better than January (and pretty significantly better, actually!).  So I would encourage you to join with me, in studying through the Proverbs, during this perfect four-week trial period that we call "February 2010."  In addition to continuing to find fresh inspiration from the Proverbs every day, I've decided that I'm also going to memorize 3 individual Proverbs (i.e. a single verse or small cluster of verses containing a single thought) per week -- at least for the month of February (thus 12 Proverbs in all).  I'm excited to see what will come of that discipline, as well.  There's a lot of amazing stuff to be learned from marinating in the Proverbs...

Please let me know if you have any thoughts about how to make the Proverbs 365 experience even more valuable -- or even if you just want to let me know that you're also following along.  You can find all the latest updates at http://proverbs365.ericasp.com.