I had a big decision to make. And I was crippled. I had so much fear in my heart. There was no way that I was going to “get peace” about this thing. I ended up being like the proverbial goat, dying of starvation whilst staring at two bales of hay positioned at an equal distance away. And I used Scripture to help me spiral into this madness. Follow my logic.
Proverbs 22:3 says, “The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.” I interpreted this as saying, “If your spidey senses are tingling, then you better not proceed. If you do, then you’re gonna suffer for it”.
You see, I’ve got relatively reliable spidey senses. I think I read and study the Scriptures enough to instinctively think with a biblical worldview, at least mostly. For the most part I can trust that intuition that “something just isn’t right about this”. But I also am a pastor who struggles with social anxiety. What that means is that there are some situations that I’m never gonna “have peace” about. My spidey senses are always going to tingle when I have to make a difficult phone call or engage in something which could potentially expose my social awkwardness.
Something just did not feel right about this decision that I had to make. The problem, though, was that my spidey senses tingled no matter which hay bale I started walking towards. So what do I do? How do you make a decision when nothing feels right? When it feels like danger no matter which way you go?
I know Scripture says that it’s not good to go against your conscience. And my spidey senses feel a good deal like my conscience at times. So what do I do? How do I get my conscience/spidey senses to stop screaming? So, that’s how I got myself trapped in my own mind.
What Does Danger Mean in Proverbs 22:3 & 27:12?
The first step out is to consider what Proverbs 22:3 is actually saying. The word translated danger is a word which could just as easily be translated evil. The word refers to the inability to come up to good standards. This is the same word used in Proverbs 6 to describe the evil and adulteress woman. So this verse isn’t just talking about foreseeing that something could be a perilous or disadvantageous situation for yourself or your family. This is saying that if you see that something is evil and you keep on that path then you are going to suffer for it. The prudent man sees this thing and hides himself. As Charles Bridges has said, “To walk carelessly in the midst of evil, is reckless folly.”
If I believe that Scripture is a sufficient guide for telling me what is evil, then that is helpful. If I hold to the sufficiency of Scripture then this means I also believe that “nothing is sin that is not forbidden by Scripture either explicitly or by implication”. (Grudem, 132) And it also means, “nothing is required of us by God that is not commanded in Scripture either explicitly or by implication”. (133) The judge and jury on my life is not ultimately my spidey senses. My conscience must be held capitve by the word of God. This is where every one of my feelings must bow.
This is incredibly freeing. It means that my spidey senses should cause me to pause, but they aren’t definitive. Yes, I need to listen to my conscience. But it too must be calibrated to the word of God. I listen to my conscience but it doesn’t have the last word.
Depression will cause my conscience to be an unruly beast. So it’s helpful to know that this beast is tamed by the word of God. If something is commanded in Scripture then I proceed even if my spidey senses tell me to stop. And if Scripture doesn’t speak to a situation I proceed with freedom and with a prayerful trust for wisdom. Now whenever my spidey senses tingle I just pause. I search the Scriptures and proceed from there.
Don’t ignore those checks to your conscience. But don’t bow to them either.
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Photo source: here
There is a really helpful book on issues of conscience that I’d encourage anyone to read: Conscience: What It Is, How to Train It, and Loving Those Who Differ.
