Where does our information come from?
Our news?
Is it solid, sound advice?
Good advice at best?
I love the image above. You can glean so much from just the increase in the (assumed homeless) man’s pricing scale. For “advice” he charges .50 cents. For “good advice,” his pricing jumps to a whopping $2.00!
But, it does “speak for itself” doesn’t it. We place a higher value on “good advice” every time. It just makes sense.
Why would we want the cheaper advice, if there’s a truer, more knowledgeable route ahead – provided by a wise guide who’s tested the path?
Rhetorical questions run amuck today (my apologies).
But, it begs of us to wisely choose the guides within our lives. For me personally, it’s an old book that is still true today, as it was before our U.S. forefathers and the formation of the Western world.
Solomon was a wise guy noted for having more inside his head than anyone before him or since. (He is the ultimate “wise guy.” Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
But, even he wrestled his entire life with knowing how to handle all of the good, bad, and ugly advice that he received during the course of his existence. (It made him MISERABLE at times.)
And we live in an ongoing “information age” in 2015. I mean just look around at what we place our importance in. I have to consult “Google” and “Wikipedia” more than any person should. But, it’s what our society relies upon. Knowledge. We crave it.
We ask the Geek Squad at Best Buy – “What gigabyte level is best for my laptop?”
We ask the Disney World guide in Orlando – “Which package will bring us closest to Mickey & Minnie?”
We ask the airline stewardess – “Where should I stow the 25.6 pound overnight bag?”
And on and on.
We have a hard time, because we have learned to grow up in an advice-polluted culture, instead of looking beyond ourselves. The “me” has been driven against the “us” to the point where it’s only me-against-me-against-me.
If you look closely at the gentleman’s picture above, you’ll see something else that his finger is obscuring.
As a direct intention towards humor, his hand is blocking the sentence, “Bad jokes for free.”
Again, it’s a good reminder.
The wisest guy in the world left advice that sums up all other attempts we make in trying to rectify an imperfect world. It gets me every time and stops me dead in my tracks.
Solomon writes,
“Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body. Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.”
Essentially, we can’t do anything apart from or beyond what is already ahead of us.
So, let’s steer ahead and not veer onto “whatifs” and hypotheticals. We will have a whole lot less to worry about as well. We’ll be taking a third option of “best advice” from a divine God, and the other 2 will fade into the background oblivion of our lives.