We are living in a time like none that I have seen in my life. Wisdom and the word of God will be needed to navigate what is coming. A naïve “Que sera sera” attitude will become a dangerous stumbling block for many people of faith if certain precautions are not set in place. 

To be careful means we make sure we are avoiding potential danger, missteps, and harm. It refers to being cautious, not suspicious. There’s a difference between the two. The root of the word “careful” is to “care.” Care means doing what is necessary for the health, welfare, and protection of someone or something.  It’s a posture of vigilance.

If we’re not careful we can substitute human intellect for the thoughts of God, substitute the eternal word of God for the limitations of education, or assume those in power will always have our best interests in mind. 

High-sounding and expansive words crafted to appeal to our natural sense of what is right have led individuals and nations into places of despair when human intellect was allowed to supplant the wisdom of God. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:10).

We cannot educate ourselves into wisdom. Our universities and some of the tenured professors in those universities are evidence of that reality. True wisdom only comes from intimacy with God. “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished, and they took note that these men had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). 

Just because someone has been elevated to a position of authority does not mean they care for those under their leadership. “So, Jesus called them together and said, ‘You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you, it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant’” (Mark 10:42-43). Leaders under the direction of the Lord will step down from places of self-importance to elevate the importance and value of those they are leading.

In the coming weeks and months, the three issues I mentioned should be used as a template to place over the major decisions we will be making about life, truth, and who will lead us. Those decisions will determine to who or what we will align our lives and choices.Those decisions will also reveal the way forward when the way forward is not yet clear. Aligning our choices with what is important to God will greatly simplify the choices we will be asked to make in the future. To not do so would be careless, not careful.