“Haughtiness goes before destruction; humility precedes honor.” Proverbs 18:12 NLT

 

What came first? If I were to asked to complete the sentence on Family Feud likely your first answer would be: “The chicken or the egg.” It has been an age old philosophical debate, but one thing we would not debate is the fact that one leads to the other. 

 

Another answer might be, and one that we wouldn’t debate is: thunder and lighting. Or more accurately lightning and thunder. Lightning precedes thunder. Now proximity is important to this observation. I really enjoy a good thunderstorm. Often in flat country like we have here in Texas, storms form a long way off where we can see flashes of lightning, but can’t hear the thunder yet because the storm is too far away. As it nears, the time between when we experience “flash and rumble” becomes less and less. When it comes to lightning and thunder, we know which comes first, and while there may be a delay after the flash, depending upon your distance, there is a relative certainty that the rumble is coming and there is nothing we can do to stop it. 

 

This week’s Proverb also talks about what come first, and what comes first before destruction and honor. If you had to choose one for your life, I am reasonably certain that you would desire honor over destruction. But the choice doesn’t come for us by selecting a desired result, but rather by choosing that focusing on that which comes first.

 

 

 

What came first?  The answer is clear. One thing leads to a another. As thunder follows lightning  so too destruction and honor have causes. The time between the activity and the result might be different, but rest assured the experience is coming. Destruction or honor, the choice is yours, by first choosing haughtiness or humility. 

 

Thankfully this is where our analogy breaks down. If you catch it while it is still a long way off, between the time when you see or become aware of the “flash” haughtiness in your life, there is still time to make changes before the rumble of destruction comes. When you see the flash a long way off, you can still make a choice to change the result.

 

 

Humility leads to honor.

 

This week look for flashes of haughtiness in your life and make the corrections before the rumble of destruction comes. 

 

In His Hands, 

 

John