Get the truth and never sell it; also get wisdom, discipline, and good judgment. (Proverbs 23:23)Some things are so important that we will do anything to get them. We will work a long time and very hard to get a new car or a house or some fancy clothes. We will go far out of our way to gain knowledge or expertise. We will humiliate ourselves to gain the attention of a young woman or an acting scout.
There are things that are so important to us that are not that important in the long run. The car, the house, the clothing, even the knowledge and expertise will be useless soon. What doesn’t wear out is rendered obsolete. We go to school to be informed about something that is soon replaced by something else we know nothing of. We buy things that are basically disposable.
But, there are things that are more important to us that are important in the long run, that will last and will gain us something great, things that are invaluable and beyond value.
The writer of the Proverbs said to get truth and never sell it. Gain truth, gain that which is always important and always valuable and never let it go. Truth is always the most valuable commodity. And no matter what else happens in life, truth is always there, always unchanging. Values may change, fashions sure enough, even knowledge and expertise. But truth is always constant.
And with that truth, that knowledge of what is real and unchanging, there are corollaries that come with it. The more you look at that truth, the more you meditate on it, dwell on it, move it around in your mind and make it part of you, the more you are able to gain the wisdom to use it.
Raw truth is good and necessary, but wisdom is the ability to use that truth. Discipline is the ability to keep on using it even when everybody around you tries their best to tell you that it is not real or relevant, and good judgement is how you show it to others.
Truth is not a bludgeon with which to beat people over the head with. It is a way through which we live our lives, a way that we know what is real. Good judgment is how we use it, how we deliver it, how we tell others about it.
Truth is never relative. But the way we present it is. And that way is with wisdom and discipline and good judgment.
But above all, without that truth, there is no wisdom, there is no discipline, there is no good judgment. All there is is relativism, change for no good reason, fear and distrust.
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