You May Have a Death Wish

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

Despite your best judgment, you may very well have a death wish. In fact, I'm quite sure that you do. But you're far from alone.

The truth is that, regardless of our best arguments to the contrary, no one really wants wisdom. We want what we want, results and costs be damned. Proverbs says we are like my dog, Chewie, the suicidal Frenchie. She can't help but want to run after any squirrel, dog, or car, right into a street full of traffic.

We are prone to the same, lured by what glitters and shines, not by what boasts long-term value but may not shimmer the same way in our eyes. We can honestly believe that a path is right and follow it to our demise. Chewie believes that squirrels and landscape trucks with bouncy, overloaded trailers lead to life, and I cannot convince her otherwise.

The way I see it, she has a death wish. But I understand the fuller context of the world she lives in. Similarly, you and I don't have a death wish in the sense that we wish for death and act accordingly.

Looking from the outside, however, we appear so reckless and risky with the single life we have to live that perhaps it's understandable that we appear to want death. And when we live with such reckless abandon, we might as well be proactively chasing it.

Three aspects of our lives are particularly prone to recklessness and naivete.

Life Has Traps

My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, "Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without reason..."

Evolutionary psychologists have documented clearly: our world is filled with danger.

My friend is an avid hunter and told me what he does to draw whitetail deer on his property into position to harvest. He plants fields with some of their favorite plants, adds feeders with corn and protein mix, and tries to keep activity down in the area during times they'd normally be active.

In short, he sets a trap. Deer get comfortable coming into his fields for food and let down their normally incredibly high guards. What they believe to be a good plan leads to death.

Like all prey, we have ways of thinking and acting, habits formed over time, that put us in harm's way. We become easy targets for predators when comfort sets in and our guards come down. Traps are deceptive. They look like provision; they're disguised as life-giving. But what they really do is exploit our weaknesses, vulnerabilities, biases, and desires. Some are simple and easy to spot, but others are in our blindspots, seductive and nearly impossible to avoid. When we're honest, we don't even want to avoid some of them.

We Wander

One who wanders from the way of good sense will rest in the assembly of the dead.

If you grew up watching horror movies, you know there's one rule you simply cannot ignore: don't wander off alone. We sat, edge of seat, pleading with one innocent teen after another to stick with the group. It never ended well.

There is certainly a "good" tendency to wander that is intentional, exploratory, and enamored with the beauty and wonder around us. The famous Tolkien quote, "Not all who wander are lost," captures the wanderlust that in at least some small way pulls at all of our hearts. That sort of wandering also poses a significant risk: losing situational awareness because our focus wanes.

"Selfie-Related Deaths" is a real term and a growing phenomenon in our hyper self-infatuation. It's just as it sounds: people looking for the perfect shot putting themselves in actual danger that costs them their lives. There is no more exemplary modern tragic story in our current culture. When we focus on something shiny and the whir of its electric glow drowns out the wisdom that would draw us back to safety, danger lurks.

Breaking Bent

The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.

Social pressure is the worst, or sometimes the best. We've all found ourselves in situations we would never have been in outside the intoxicating effects of a friend's dulcet tones. We're bent. Not straight. Headed in a direction we never intended.

Life can warp us. We can allow ourselves to be shaped in negative ways by others' prodding and life's incessant pressures. Over time, we can become desensitized to things that once bothered us and hardened to what we once so deeply felt.

You've experienced it, right? A good friend is promoted, falls into new-found wealth, or walks through some traumatic experience and is no longer the same. Their character shifts, they pull away, and your paths diverge. They're bent and may well be on a path that ends in demise.

Staying on Track

There is an answer. If it is we whose direction so easily leads to trouble, there must be a solution outside of ourselves: wisdom that is not our own.

Against traps:

The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death.

We are probably being both reckless and hunted at most times. The answer is not paranoia, but vigilance in our watching and prudence in our choices.

Against wandering:

Whoever walks in integrity will be delivered, but he who is crooked in his ways will suddenly fall.

Our eyes will certainly wander at times. The question is whether we will have the wisdom to recognize it, see the danger, and course correct.

Against getting bent:

The path of life leads upward for the prudent, that he may turn away from Sheol beneath.

Life is a never-ending series of choices that lead you where you are going and shape who you become. At every decision, we not only choose a path but also reject every other option.

My dog, Chewie, makes some crazy decisions in her unknowingly suicidal search for more. But her harness ensures her safety, since I know when she should slow down and which path she should take.

May we find safety inside the harness of God's wisdom, as well.

Get wisdom; get insight; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you. The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.