As I was writing my book on Proverbs, I made a point to not mention certain things. One of those things was my ischemic stroke.

Wait a minute, Mark. You were writing a book on Proverbs. Proverbs! What could your stroke have to do with anything? Why would you even think of it?

I had reasons, but the worry that people would find such a discussion outlandish and perhaps decide I was looking for an excuse to write about myself, outweighed them.

Recently, I got James Clear’s valuable book, Atomic Habits, from the library.  In the introduction, Clear begins by recounting his high school experience dealing with a life-threatening brain injury. He describes what was involved in his recovery as an entry-way into his learning the importance of acquiring productive habits.

My brain injury was much later in life (just over five years ago in my late forties), and I actually started to think about Proverbs before it happened. But the experience helped solidify my understanding.

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I remember (distantly, vaguely) being taught to ride a bicycle as a young child. My parents shouldered the burden of teaching me. I am glad I don’t remember in detail all the whining they had to put up with or the extra encouraging and cajoling they had to practice to get it to happen.

Don’t misunderstand. I desperately wanted to ride a bike, at least in theory. One of the few childhood tantrums I remember was over getting a bike. But getting one is not the same as being able to use a bicycle. And wanting to learn to ride feels different as a distant desire than it feels when you are wobbling on the unsteady seat, realizing that your father is about to remove his hands that are holding you up. You are going to have to pedal, steer, and stay upright on your own.

Teaching a child to ride a bike does involve communicating a few points of information. But it much more involves holding onto the bike to give your son or daughter a sense of how it is supposed to feel before you let go and see how much distance is covered before a fall. The main challenge of teaching bike-riding to children is convincing them that falls are survivable and that they need to get back on and try again, and repeat.

According to David, God taught him to fight. “Blessed be YHWH, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle” (Psalm 144:1 ESV; see also Ps 118:34). This Psalm wasn’t restricted to David. We see from the Exodus that God was concerned that Israel, His “son” (Exodus 4:22-23) would not be prepared for war:

When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, “Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.” But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle.

Exodus 13:17–18 ESV

So they were regimented like an army but God knew they would not be able to stand before their enemies. That is why he deliberately led them into a dead end at the Red Sea, enticed Pharaoh to attack them, and drowned the entire Egyptian army. He showed Israel he could defeat any enemy.

Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great power that the LORD used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses. Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD, saying, “I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him. The LORD is a man of war; the LORD is his name…”

Exodus 14:30–5:3 ESV

So the God of Israel, YHWH, was a great and victorious warrior. He rescued Israel and the people owed their existence to his rescue.

Nevertheless, that didn’t mean God wanted them to never be warriors themselves. He fought for their deliverance but also to teach them by example. At the Red Sea they were required to do nothing but watch him fight. Other times, they fought themselves though the victory was obviously dependent on prayer (Exodus 17:8-13). Another time, prayer brought down the walls and then they fought the enemy inside Jericho (Joshua 6). Another time, after sin kept them from winning, they fought Ai with the Lord’s blessing and a strategy of deception that led to victory (Joshua 8).

The lesson of the Red Sea was not that God would always fight for Israel so they would never have to become fighters themselves. The lesson was that God is a great warrior who they should grow up to be like.

This basic lesson is all over the Bible. God created humanity to do things (Genesis 1:26-28). Yes, they should always acknowledge God as the source of their being and power; they should always give thanks. But God doesn’t want passive worshipers who ask him to do everything for them any more than Christian parents want that for their children.

So doing things isn’t a denial of the grace of God in our lives; it is the point of it.

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV

One could (mis)use proof texts to quibble with Paul’s formulation, if it wasn’t also inspired Scripture. One could claim that we can do all things through Christ (Philippians 4:13) so nothing should be beyond our ability. Or we could say that apart from Christ we can do nothing (John 15:5), so everything is beyond our ability. But Paul teaches that we should not excuse ourselves, but find the “way of escape” that God has provided. Defeating sin may take strategy, just as it took strategy to finally defeat the Canaanite city of Ai.

Jesus says that he looks for, and evaluates, and even promotes, diligent servants. “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master’” (Matthew 25:21 ESV). Any formulation of grace that denies a Christian should want to please God and hear him say, “well done” needs to be re-thought. In the Bible, wanting to please God isn’t a kind of pride, it is the correct and only alternative to wanting to please other gods: “… a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God” (Romans 2:29 ESV).

Do you trust God to praise you? Then dare to act in a praiseworthy manner. Do you fear you will fall short? Then trust God to forgive you, deal with it, and begin anew. “Be wise, my son, and make my heart glad, that I may answer him who reproaches me” (Proverbs 27:11 ESV). You are called to make God’s heart glad. Ask God to train you to do so.

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Yes.

But one of the things about my book that might be causing some questions is that I argue that Proverbs is written to a young man.

Actually, in the introduction of my book Solomon Says: Directives for Young Men (Athanasius), I argue that the idealized person Solomon is addressing is a royal heir, a prince, one destined to inherit a throne.

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“Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness” (Proverbs 31:25–27 ESV; emphasis added).

Before I walked into my local store to see bare store shelves, preppers did not seem as prudent to me as they do now. I may have thought of them as a class of people who had less trust in God than I had (or thought I had).

A lot of my feelings developed during the Y2K scare, when some Christians (and others) insisted that we were headed toward a horrible economic and social crisis because too many computers would fail when we changed millenniums. They painted vivid pictures of disaster and made me fear the future. In many cases, their recommended actions were far outside my financial ability. If they were right, I was doomed.

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Only a month ago millions of people had jobs waiting tables, cutting hair, and working many other jobs. Some liked their jobs. Some didn’t. Some regarded their jobs as temporary while they worked on something else for their futures. Some were actively looking for other work.

And suddenly, their job has disappeared along with any idea of what the future holds.

In a column I posted at TownHall.com, I suggested that the plague we are now suffering under is evidence that Solomon was right that our toil is vapor and chasing wind. This is stated repeatedly in Ecclesiastes. I pointed to similarities in Proverbs. Here are some more examples:

• “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps” (Proverbs 16:9 ESV).
• “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand” (Proverbs 19:21 ESV).
• “A man’s steps are from the LORD; how then can man understand his way?” (Proverbs 20:24 ESV).

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One of the most memorable items that has come to us from Frank Herbert’s Dune is the “fear litany,” which the story’s protagonist recites to himself in order to regain composure amid panic:

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

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