Dave Dishman

I read the book The Millionaire Next Door several years ago. The authors describe how wealthy people surround us but escape our notice. These folks live below their means and prioritize saving and investing over flashy spending. They tend toward discipline and modesty, accumulating wealth through consistent habits. It’s a fascinating book, one I highly recommend. I found it encouraging. Slow and steady wins the race when it comes to long-term financial success.

Like those incognito millionaires, we’re also surrounded by quiet people of great faith. A cloud of witnesses hovers around us, past and present, encouraging you and me to shed the extravagant lifestyle of selfishness. Instead, join those who pursue the kingdom of God. Stride out and never stop.

Those who keep to this race find themselves entering a kingdom that cannot be shaken, a home that is solid, secure and permanent.

Many around us move toward that kingdom, more than you or I realize. As we get curious and ask questions, we discover spiritual millionaires among us. In so doing we join a stream of fellow pilgrims, and walk alongside those whose faith leads to new vistas.

Hebrews 12:28

Photo by Ian MacDonald

I know a lot of smart people. Folks with expertise in various fields of study, those who understand finances and technology and medicine and mathematics. I watch smart people on the news speak about different issues and potential solutions. I like to think I’m a pretty smart guy as well.

But smart ain’t necessarily wise. Take the current upheavals over the Epstein revelations. Lots of smart people, hundreds apparently, hobnobbed with a sexual predator. They flew on his private jet, stayed at fancy resorts on his dime, met powerful people by his invitation, and partook in unspeakable acts behind closed doors. Except the doors remained ajar. His correspondence reveals the pandering of really smart people to this depraved hypnotist. Now these intelligent folks are learning the meaning of you reap what you sow.

None of these world leaders, people who make decisions affecting all of us, showed an ounce of wisdom in their dealings with Epstein. How could so many get it so wrong? Perhaps they looked to the wrong source (if they looked at all). The intelligentsia of the world point to power and wealth and influence as indicators of wisdom. But such metrics fail to measure true sagacity.

Instead, the Scriptures point a different direction: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!

Respect, awe and obedience to God form the foundation of wisdom. Humility lays the groundwork. Opening the Scriptures plows the ground. Practicing what we find within plants the seeds. Acknowledging the Only Wise God as our Creator and Lord brings forth a harvest of penetrating discernment.

Wisdom reveals itself in humility and reverence towards God, no hint of which is found in the thousands and thousands of pages in the Epstein report.

Psalm 111:10

Photo by Tanja Tepavac

I’ve been told you can’t squeeze blood from a turnip, so I wonder how you get honey from a rock?

Asaph, the psalmist, refers back to something Moses wrote many years before. When wandering through the wilderness, God provided for the children of Israel. Whether is was manna surrounding the camp or quail raining down or water gushing from a rock face, God came through in unexpected ways.

I also face wilderness experiences. In difficulties I swing between seeking the Lord or turning away in frustration. But God is found in the wilderness, and when I persevere I begin to understand Asaph when he writes, with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.

In wilderness I grow tough. In wilderness I develop fortitude. In wilderness I discover wisdom. Through all the adversity, if I struggle on, I will eventually enjoy the goodness of the Lord—honey from the rock.

Psalm 81:16

Photo by Isabela Kronemberger

I like milk, I always have. When our kids were teenagers we went through several gallons of milk a week (they also liked milk). We bought so much milk my wife and I contemplated lacing it with sawdust, anything to fill their bellies.

As much as I like milk, my body requires more than dairy. The author of Hebrews chided the church for their failure to move on to a more robust diet:

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

These folks forgot the basic principles of the Christian faith, and like a toddler demanded the bottle. They remained unskilled in the word. This group lacked the maturity that only comes from practicing the tenets of the faith.

As followers of Jesus, we move to the adult table by learning to discern good from evil. We apply the teachings of Scripture to the world we inhabit. By evaluating and shaping our ways to match Biblical norms we gain skill in differentiating the good things in the world from those bent on destruction. It takes constant practice to develop this skill, which is why so many people fail.

Let us move on from milky faith to confident belief. To discern good from evil, we must first possess directives telling us what is actually good and truly evil. Then we follow those directives. Gaining any skill takes hard work. We have the directives—the Word of God—now it’s up to us to put in the work.

Hebrews 5:11-14

Photo by Aaron Burden