Key events / passages from today’s reading:

• Give thanks to the Lord (Psalm 136)
• Where can I go from your Spirit (Psalm 139)
• Praise the Lord from the heights (Psalm 149)
• Let everything that has breath praise the Lord (Psalm 150)
• The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (Proverbs 1:1-7)
• Trust in the Lord with all your heart (Proverbs 3:1-10)

Verse that stood out: The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline – Proverbs 1:7

In his excellent book, After You Believe, N. T. Wright recounts the story of Captain “Sully” Sullenberger. You likely remember the story. Captain Sullenberger is the pilot who successfully landed his powerless Airbus A320 upon the Hudson river. Most people called the event a miracle. Wright concedes the landing was miraculous but adds, “The full explanation is, if anything, even more interesting and exciting [than simply calling it a miracle]” (page 18).

The fuller version of events includes all the details of those chaotic moments, details Captain Sullenberger carried out with precision, in an almost second-nature kind of way. How was he able to keep his calm, make key decisions in a timely manner, and then execute those decisions without hesitation? Because he had practiced and practiced for decades. He’d trained and trained and trained and flew and flew and flew until the skills and decision-making required for such a moment became for him, “second nature.”

Wright says that you could call this “the power off right habits” or better yet, “character.” The book of Proverbs calls it wisdom. Wright settles on the word “virtue.” His definition of virtue is insightful:

“Virtue, in this strict sense, is what happens when someone has made a thousand small choices, requiring effort and concentration, to do something which is good and right but which doesn’t ‘come naturally’ – and then, on the thousand and first time, when it really matters, they find that they do what’s required ‘automatically,’ as we say. On that thousand and first occasion, it does indeed look as if it ‘just happens’; but reflection tells us that it doesn’t ‘just happen’ as easy as that” (page 20-21).

Virtue is what the writers of Proverbs are after. They call it wisdom, but the life described in the Proverbs is almost exactly the same as the life Wright labels virtuous. In each case, the life described, one that not only knows what is right, but does it without fail, takes effort, discipline, and commitment. Righteousness doesn’t come naturally but can become ‘second nature’ for those who trust in the Lord and daily practice walking in his ways. Most of us want that kind of life, but when we look at the end result of virtuous life, we’re intimidated. Looking at the end of the journey, we’re tempted to think, “That could never be me, I have so far to go.” And yet, we should remember, Captain Sullenberger’s first flying lesson didn’t start with emergency river landings, but probably something closer to, “Welcome to class, this is an airplane . . .”

Wisdom can’t be obtained in one day, but any day can be the day we start down wisdom’s path.

For tomorrow:

• Cover to cover: Proverbs 6:5-19:19
• Key Passage: Proverbs 15:1-33
• Verse of the Day: Proverbs 5:31