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Learn and live

By DANIEL OVERDORF
Contributing Writer

There are two approaches to life. We can live and learn. Or, we can learn and live.

Those who choose the first approach, live and learn, should be pitied. Life beats them down, kicks them, and steps on them. Their only hope is to have learned some lesson from the experience that will help them avoid such a beating the next time.

Our other option is to learn and live. Those who choose this approach should be admired. They draw from the wisdom and experiences of others who've gone before them. They learn about life's potholes before stepping into them, so to speak, rather than afterward.

You can live and learn. Or, you can learn and live. Obviously the second option is more appealing: learn and live.

An old man named Agur can help us learn and live. Agur taught 3,000 years ago on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. You'd have liked Agur; he oozed wisdom, some of which the Bible records in Proverbs 30. One slice of his wisdom proves particularly helpful for today's world. Agur pointed to four small creatures as examples we'd do well to emulate (Proverbs 30:24-28). The ant is small, but it's extremely wise. The ant knows to spend the summer preparing for winter. Life has summers, good times to enjoy. Life has winters, difficult times to endure. How might we endure the winters? By preparing during the summers. If we want to face winters with a strong relationship with God, for example, we must spend the summers strengthening our relationship with God. If we want to face winters with faithful friends by our side, we must spend the summers building healthy friendships. Spend the summer preparing for winter.

In addition to the ant, the coney offers wisdom for today. The coney, a rabbit-sized badger that lives in rocky areas, is a weak animal. If a coney were to wonder away from the rocks it would easily fall to predators. Therefore the coney knows to stay near the rocks, where it can avoid even swooping vultures by ducking into a crevice. The coney recognizes its weakness, and knows where to find strength. The wise person will learn from the coney. Wise people honestly admit their weaknesses, then bravely seek strength and refuge in the rock. And, as King David said, “There is no rock like our God.”

The locust also helps the wise person learn to live. A locust by itself isn't particularly formidable. It's more a nuisance than a force. But when a bunch of locusts get together they topple kingdoms. The locust knows the power of community. So does the wise person. While our culture glorifies the rugged individual, wise people know that Lone Rangers and Rambos rarely exist outside of Hollywood. Those who do exist seldom last. We need others to survive. We need others to thrive. And when people of like mind get together, watch out.

Finally Agur points to the lizard. If you saw a lizard in your house, you'd chase it out the back door with a broom. It's small, slimy, and unattractive. Yet, Agur explains, lizards find their way into king's palaces. There's an absurdity to that image, an incongruity. A lizard? In a palace? It's like a fish in a tree, or a snail piloting an airplane. Yet imbedded in that incongruence is the image of grace. Grace is absurd. God welcomes lizards — slimy sinners, the liars and the arrogant, people like you and me — into eternal palaces. When wise people grasp the beauty of that absurd image, they never look in the mirror the same way again. Neither do they look at their neighbor the same way. We're lizards, but we're glorified. We're sinners, but we'll spend eternity with other lizards in the King's palace.

Wise is the person who sits at the feet of the ant, the coney, the locust, and the lizard. At these feet (if we can find them), we learn to live.

(Daniel Overdorf is the senior minister of Fayetteville Christian Church, located at New Hope and Hickory Roads in Fayetteville. He may be heard each Sunday at 10:30 a.m. as a part of the church's weekly worship. Daniel may be contacted at the church office at 770-461-8763, or at daniel@fayettevillechristian.org.)