Inverse relationship of enjoyment to learning

Proverbs 1:20-23

Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech: "How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you.

There are so many simple thoughts out there - people not thinking, not discerning, not rightly dividing, but just following the simple ways their parents set out or their grandparents or their church.

And when troubles come they complain, they trudge on, but they don't learn, and so they are doomed to continue in the same misery begging God for help all while God has already sent it but they are blind to see it.

The lesson from wisdom is lost. Life pretty much works two ways: you enjoy it or you learn from it. Sure you can learn while you are enjoying and enjoy while you are learning. In fact, even painful times can have some sweet with the sour if you realize that the pain will make you better - wiser.

But in general, the greater the moment of distress or discomfort, the more potential there is for learning. In fact, most great people will tell you that failure is just a seed of opportunity to success. As Napolean Hill put it:

Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed on an equal or greater benefit.

When wisdom rebukes you, when life rebukes you, can you man up (or woman up), and confess to God and yourself that you are in the wrong - that you need to change and you realize that you are the one that must follow the right path and get you out of the troubles you are in? Can you accept rebuke from others and apply wisdom to rightly divide truth from fiction or mere insults?

Wisdom raises her voice in the public squares; she cries out. Can you hear her?