Those who hang their coats within reach
Rise and fetch it to meet jarring needs
Those who hang theirs beyond reach
Lose it in the hour of need: unable, no matter
How high they reach or how hard they try.
Pressure makes no allowances, doesn’t wait
For what you don’t have, for when you get it:
It demands what you can where you are
Not where you hope to be, when you get there.
Wisdom teaches us to live and walk and work
Within our measure of grace per time.
Those who hearken will not be stranded
They will find the way in times of need
But those who won’t heed learn too late
That testing time is not learning time.
Food For Thought: The pressures of life can be vicious but there is no grace in borrowing to impress, no wisdom in living above our means. We can never get out of a fix by quick-fix-borrowing, which often come with killing interests that force us deeper into the pit we may be desperate to escape. Wisdom teaches that there is time for everything; time to bear with where we are until we have acquired the wisdom not just to escape but also to move higher and never return. Those who jump out in a hurry are forced by circumstances they didn’t learn enough to overcome, to return to the very pit they thought they had escaped. Marrying wisdom with grace helps us to live our size per time. Not because we lack the dream or the will for more. Instead, because we are learning that everything in its time works out our greater good. Everything in its time allows us to enjoy sustainable success. What others think is not our problem: our business is to mind our business and mind it well. To live our reality in hope, not shy away or pretend about it. To deal our present with all we have as we hope for a brighter and better future. May wisdom preserve us from bitter consequences of not hanging our coats where our hands can easily reach them in times of need.
Scripture: If the ax is dull, and one does not sharpen the edge, then he must use more strength; but wisdom brings success. Ecclesiastes 10: 10.
Prayer: Dear Lord, may wisdom not be far from me in all I do, amen.