Scripture Focus: Proverbs 4.5-7
5 Get wisdom, get understanding; 
do not forget my words or turn away from them. 
6 Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; 
love her, and she will watch over you. 
7 The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. 
Though it cost all you have, get understanding.

Reflection: Wisdom—A Spouse, A Path, A Healer
By John Tillman

The father, instructing his child, compares wisdom to many things. 

Wisdom is like a spouse. (Proverbs 4.6-9) The one who embraces wisdom and is faithful, loving, and devoted will be protected, watched over, exalted, and honored. The greater attention, deference, submission, love, and priority we give to wisdom, the greater protection and blessing she grants to us.

Abandoning wisdom means turning to the arms of other partners who make lofty promises of love but have no desire or ability to follow through. In their arms we will find abuse instead of protection, neglect instead of attention, subjugation instead of exaltation, and shame instead of honor.

Wisdom is like a path. (Proverbs 4.11-19) The path of wisdom is bright and grows brighter as it is traveled. What we learn of God’s wisdom today, leads us to learn greater wisdom tomorrow. Ever brighter, the path leads on and on. It is a straight path, not turning to the right or the left. It is a smooth path, safe to walk and safe to run, with no obstacles or dangers.

The only hazards on the path of wisdom are the many opportunities to wander onto paths leading away from wisdom’s light. These paths stay within wisdom’s sight briefly. Long enough to seem like shortcuts or detours. But soon, downward into darkness they turn, lined with false steps, dark corners, and opportunities for ambush and injury. These paths have twists and switchbacks, always promising better things around the corner, but only delivering more of the same.

Wisdom is like a healer. (Proverbs 4.20-27) Wisdom gives our bodies nourishment for what needs to grow and medicine for what is sick. Through our ears and eyes wisdom brings health to our hearts, our inner being. This inner mental and spiritual health flows to the rest of our life. Our words and our actions are healed and purified. Our sight is sharpened.

Forsaking wisdom is slowly poisoning ourselves. It brings diseased actions, feelings, and thoughts. We sicken from the inside out, unable to scratch what itches or staunch what is bleeding.

Be wisdom’s dutiful patient and experience healing and nourishment of spirit, mind, and body.

Place one foot after another on the penitent pilgrimage of wisdom’s path and find destinations beyond your imagining.

Vow to love wisdom for life as a faithful partner and be filled and satisfied.

Wisdom is calling. Will you answer? Will you be her patient? Her pilgrim? Her spouse?

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
Out of Zion, perfect in its beauty, God reveals himself in glory.
Let the heavens declare the rightness of his cause; for God himself is judge. — Psalm 50.2, 6

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.


​Today’s Readings
Proverbs 4 (Listen 2:37)
Psalm 34 (Listen 2:14)

Read more about Wisdom Versus Obedience
Wisdom is mined from a deep relationship with God. It is refined in the crucible of life.

Read more about Supporting Our Work
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Scripture Focus: Proverbs 4.20-22
My son, pay attention to what I say;
    turn your ear to my words.
Do not let them out of your sight,
    keep them within your heart;
for they are life to those who find them
    and health to one’s whole body.

Reflection: The Church’s Historical Response to Plague
By John Tillman

*This will be quite a long post compared to our normal 400 words. The first half is a bit of a “backstage tour” of The Park Forum and an explanation of why we rarely write about current events such as COVID-19. If you’d like to skip over that and get straight to our devotional related to the pandemic and a response of faith, scroll on down to the heading “The Church’s Historical Response to Plague.”

At The Park Forum, we tie our devotional writing tightly to our reading plan. We rarely diverge from it other than to write about major seasons of the church year such as Lent, Easter, Advent, and Christmastide.

We address cultural trends but rarely, if ever, address specific current events. This is intended to keep our content timeless by relating it primarily to the timeless Word of God. It is also a bulwark, intended to prevent our work from becoming a response to the world, rather than a response to God’s Word. We succeed or fail in following these ideals to varying degrees each week, by God’s mercy.

The other reason we rarely write about current events is less idealistic and more practical—our publishing timeline is too long. In order to have our emails sent at 5:00 AM in each timezone around the world, we need to “send” them 24 hours in advance. We write them a minimum of 36 hours ahead of when you read it in the email or online. That’s an eternity in today’s news cycle. And honestly, when I am writing that close to the send deadline, it is quite nerve-wracking and mistakes can be made. My preference is to be at least five to ten days ahead. I am writing this, which will publish on Tuesday, on the preceding Friday evening. This is a bit late for my taste, but by the time you read it, any time-sensitive information will likely be out of date.

With all of this in mind, let us prayerfully approach the topic of COVID-19 and the gospel.

The Church’s Historical Response to Plague
Sickness and disease comes frequently into the pages of scripture. 

The ancient Jewish ethic of ritual washing and ritual cleanliness was at times (especially in regards to transmissible diseases and conditions, such as leprosies and dangerous molds) a practical step of keeping the community healthy. The role of the priests was to risk their own safety in order to inspect contaminated individuals and contaminated dwellings for signs of infection. To cause another person to be infected and in risk of death due to negligence to these regulations was to be in violation of the commandment, “Do not murder.” 

Today we have outsourced home inspection to the real estate industry and personal health to the healthcare industry. (When was the last time your pastor inspected your house for black mold?)

In an article for Foreign Policy Magazine, Lyman Stone writes of how Christianity took this ancient Jewish ethic further:

“The Christian motive for hygiene and sanitation does not arise in self-preservation but in an ethic of service to our neighbor. We wish to care for the afflicted, which first and foremost means not infecting the healthy. Early Christians created the first hospitals in Europe as hygienic places to provide care during times of plague, on the understanding that negligence that spread disease further was, in fact, murder.”

Throughout history (Particularly in the Antonine Plague of the 2nd century, and in the Plague of Cyprian in the 3rd) Christians were noted as the one group which consistently, century after century, took risks to their own health in their service to the infected and the suffering. The sociologist and religious demographer Rodney Stark claims that death rates in cities with Christian communities during these plagues may have been half that of other cities.

We see it again In 1527, when the bubonic plague struck Wittenberg. Martin Luther refused to flee the city but stayed instead and ministered to the sick. This decision cost him the life of his own daughter, Elizabeth. When asked whether Christians should flee a plague, Luther produced a pamphlet in answer. It can be boiled down to five words, “We die at our posts.”

In every major epidemic through history, Christianity distinguished itself with an ethic that stood out from the desperate self-preservation tactics of the surrounding societies. 

The historic church has left us a great example and testimony based on sound application of the scriptures. 

Are we following it? Are we caring for our neighbors or just for ourselves?

Pray that the Holy Spirit would lead you and your faith community to shine in this moment of fear and uncertainty. Be safe. Follow best practices for lowering risks of transmission. Don’t be foolish. But do all this not in service of your own safety, but in service to the community. 

When this crisis passes, will every unused bottle of hand sanitizer or vital goods stashed in our homes that could have been donated to our church or sent to a senior living center, or given to a neighbor stand as a testimony that we cared more for ourselves than for others?

This is a stark challenge to our hearts to see if we are following in the example laid before us by the Church. Tomorrow we will look at the divine comfort and inexplicable peace the Church relied on to carry out its mission during past crises.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
Awesome things will you show us in your righteousness, O God of our salvation, O Hope of all the ends of the earth and of the seas that are far away.

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Proverbs 4 (Listen -2:37) 
Galatians 3 (Listen -4:39)

Read more about Taking Advantage of the Desperate
From a business perspective, the noblemen confronted by Nehemiah were simply following the market. Payday lenders would describe it as filling a “financial service void.”

Read more about The Purpose of Power
After prayer and fasting, Esther’s concerns for her own life disappear and her purpose is clarified. The purpose of Esther’s power is to serve others. So it is with us.