Proverbs 12:1 Being not stoopid

Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid. Proverbs 12:1NIV

Love and hate. Knowledge and stoopidity. Hot and cold. Black and white. Opposites. Except for discipline and correction — it is the one common item between those that are stupid and those that aren’t. The difference between them boils down to the attitude about making adjustments. Solomon doesn’t actually make the distinction about changing behavior, but rather, he has a spotlight on our relationship to the information that confronts us.

The word stupid, means dull-hearted, unreceptive. From a word meaning to kindle or burn up, with the idea that one will be consumed, for example by fire or or by eating. Brutish, like a dumb animal who is incapable of contemplation, reflection, improvement.

Let’s be honest, who loves being corrected? Or even worse, punished? Yet in it is something marvelous. Feedback (correction) is a gift. I’ve always considered it the breakfast of champions. My response to feedback determines whether I get more or less—will the person offering it feel safe telling me like it is? It takes energy, and sometimes risk, for someone to tell me what’s not working. It’s instinctual for parents to do so, vocational for teachers, an obligation for police, but friends and neighbors make a choice (or not) to discuss something with me.

Receiving feedback and embracing things as they are, not as I wish them to be, is essential every day. It’s an active process, potentially, of keeping me aligned with a goal or purpose or more importantly, a relationship. It reflects absolutes. Likes or dislike. Right or wrong. Fixed or broken. Good or bad. Lawful or illegal. Upright or splayed across the floor. And it provides the information needed to realign me to something more desirable if I will hear.

There are guard rails on roads with precipitous curves. There is a warning light in a car for overheating. Teachers put red marks all over the test I just completed. Someone gets very angry with me and storms off. These are all indicators, clues, information that provides opportunity to me every day. The act of standing on two feet is an amazing feat (pun intended) of balance and is only possible as I listen to the feedback loop of balance within. A basketball player shoots and misses, quickly logs what every muscle was doing, adjusts and shoots again — swoosh.

For me, there are two parts to loving discipline. The first is my invitation to feedback. Using a traffic analogy, do I “red light” it or give it a “green light?” Do I wince, or appreciate? Do I defend and justify or do I explore, ask questions to understand better? If I truly love correction, not only will I have a welcome mat out but the invitation will have been sent (and on fancy paper!), the table set, and the meal prepared. I’m ready for it. Expecting it. Thrive on it. I need honesty and the reflection in my soul of what only the look into the mirror of those that love and value me can provide. The second is my response to the information delivered. Let’s be real… people are corrected every day and in many ways, yet we get up and move along without doing anything about it. I daily pass the “your speed is 45” sign flashing in bright LEDs coaxing me to consider 25, only to see it again the next day. Real action begins in the heart. And what I allow in my heart is what defines me.

Solomon gives us one little proverb. Yet from it I unpack a mystery that consumes my life. All babies begin in nearly the same way, but at the end of life, our differences are profound. There is a process that God our father set in motion at the beginning. He said, “Let us make man in our image and after our likeness.” When Christ appeared, he showed us the gold standard of the kingdom — the exact representation of our God. Then he said, “follow me.” Like sheep, we imitate what we observe. And this is where the grand separation comes — what I choose to observe. Then, what I choose to do with it. I may be like him. Imagine! This correction, discipline, smelting process is one that allows me to be refined to kingdom standards. All of those who have set their heart on his kingdom are privilege to the blessed boot camp of his correcting process during our 70, 80, 90+ years on this earth. What is produced is our gift to Him.

I love how the Message Bible paraphrases Hebrews 12:

My dear child, don’t shrug off God’s discipline, but don’t be crushed by it either. It’s the child he loves that he disciplines; the child he embraces, he also corrects. God is educating you; that’s why you must never drop out. He’s treating you as dear children. This trouble you’re in isn’t punishment; it’s training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God’s training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God’s holy best. At the time, discipline isn’t much fun. It always feels like it’s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it’s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.

Hebrews 12:4-11 MSG

And again in James 1:

Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

James 1:2-4 MSG