Whoever seeks good finds favor, but evil comes to one who searches for it. – Proverbs 11:27

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 30, 2019): Proverbs 11

Apparently, I am passing through my “Country Music Phase.” Yeah, I know. Who saw this coming? But I have been listening to a little Tim Hicks over the summer, and one tune keeps on going through my mind. The song is “Can’t Take it Away.” Hicks writes this;

            So don’t be Debbie Downing on my parade

            You know what they say, yeah the haters gonna hate

            So if your glass is half empty, go and drink it on up

            And me I’m sipping on a half-full cup.

The song attacks what might be one of the eternal questions of life. How is it that you see the world? Are you an optimist or a pessimist? And the reality is that we often see what it is that we expect to see. In every area of life, whatever it is that we expect is what we end up seeing. If you expect the church to be judgmental and evil, it will fulfill your expectations. In the same way, if you hope to see goodness; you will find that, too.

But I am also convinced that how we see the world will be the way that the world sees us. It is incredible to me how often people that we judge to be bitter have a bitter outlook on life, and see bitterness everyplace that they look. And the people that we love to be around are the ones who look for reasons to love us and the world around us. Often, we are what it is that we search for in the world around us.  

Solomon recognized this concept in his life. If you look for the good, you will find it. If you look for evil, you will find that also. Solomon doesn’t add the next sentence, but he could have. So search for good in every aspect of life. It just makes sense. Could it be that evil is so easy to find because that is what we are searching for? Could we change our world by deciding that we were not going to search for evil, but rather for good? It might be a hard task early on, but the effort would be worth it because we would get to live in a better world.

So are you a “glass half full” or “glass half empty” kind of person. And more importantly, are you willing to change your outlook on life?

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Proverbs 12