As a young man, I took great pride in my ability to craft good stories. I aspired to be a fiction writer. If I’d have had more discipline in marketing myself, I might have succeeded, but it’s probably a good thing I didn’t. Who knows what dark corners I might now find myself hanging around if I’d have tasted that success.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with good fiction. But I had a problem. I delighted in twisted things.
Not just your ordinary horror stories. Rather, in the absurd. And I still find myself sometimes entertaining absurdities for the sake of absurdities. It’s because my mind has been twisted, though the good Lord continues to unravel it.
In Proverbs 12:8, we find a timeless truth about wisdom and twistedness.
A man is praised according to his wisdom, but a twisted mind is despised.
I’ve noticed over the years that wise men are revered. In those moments when I have managed to display some level of wisdom in thought or deed, there was often someone there to witness it and admire me in those moments. BUT, when my twisted mind began to showcase its dark alleys, people would look at me as if I had three heads. And I may just as well had.
We have here in this proverb a universal principle. Wisdom is respected while distorted thinking is despised.
Is there a way in which your own thinking is distorted? Do seek wisdom and righteousness through Jesus Christ or a distortion of reality through your own pride?