Diet Devotional 25

[Wisdom speaking] "Let all who are simple come in here!" she says to those who lack judgment. "Come eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of understanding." Prov. 9:4-6

God is certainly taking away my simple ways. Like the verse about being put through the fire to remove the dross, I feel like I'm being purified from unhealthy emotional habits. After all, if I can't just make my feelings go away with food, I have to do something with them. It's amazing how many things I've stuffed over the years. I've always considered myself a fairly accessible, direct, and emotionally healthy person. Well, take away the crutch, and I seem to be a different creature altogether. I've prided myself on my ability to reason through conflicts and deal logically with painful situations. But now I'm discovering a whole new vulnerability. It's really quite interesting.

The events in my life this last week make me think that perhaps God is going much, much deeper with this issue than I had suspected. What I thought would be a lesson in self-discipline is turning out to be a lesson in judgment. Instead of the simple emotional responses I've always chosen, I now need to eat the food of wisdom and drink the wine of understanding. I believe the promise in this verse, "Leave your simple ways and you will live." I believe that God is taking me, and all of us, on this journey for a reason - to give us life like we've never know before.