Desire Without Knowledge

For Friday, November 3, 2006
Proverbs 19:2

Desire without knowledge is not good,
and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way.

Is this not the cause of our troubles? We desire without knowledge. The young man desires the Forbidden Woman, not knowing that she leads to death. The fool desires fortune and fame, not knowing that he chooses ignomy and destruction. The wicked desire to take advantage of others, not knowing that they are entrapping themselves. Man desires to exalt himself, not knowing that he is debasing himself. Pride, greed, ambition all serve to make us ignorant.

Then we haste to fulfill our desires and thus miss the signs that would lead us aright. Our desires not only blind us, but compel us not to look, not to use discernment. The result of this all is that we miss The Desire instilled in us - the desire for God. We substitute it with the trivial and the profane; we substitute it with desires which, if they did spring from desire for God, would be good; but now that we have made idols of them in place of God they become soiled and lead us astray.

Desire is good - desire that is with the knowledge of the fear of the Lord. Such desire leads to what is truly fulfilling, what is lasting, what raises one up to glory. Desire that springs from the love of God found in Jesus Christ - that is abundant joy.