One of the enduring puzzles of human life is that a good start is better than a bad one… and yet a good start isn’t enough to finish well.
This is obvious in mundane circumstances. A person starts a well-planned health regimen (whether gym or diet or both) and makes great progress in a year. Yet he fails to continue and, four years later, the effects of the change have dissipated. You can’t tell that he ever made himself healthier. Someone else however, because he had many distractions or maybe some misinformation about how to proceed, showed much less progress that first year, and yet stuck with it, and is much healthier or stronger or a better runner five years later.
Every good thing has to begin but not every good beginning ends up becoming a good thing for the long term.
One of the discouragements that a reader of Proverbs can be tempted to feel is thinking the rewards of wisdom are out of reach because one didn’t start well. Perhaps one’s parents were foolish and didn’t raise you right. Or perhaps you are older and realize you didn’t listen to your parents.
So remember: Every good thing has to begin some time.
The parents of the son in Proverbs are concerned that their child won’t continue in what he is taught. The father exhorts his son not for forget how he was raised and to seek wisdom in the present and the future.
Hear, my son, your father’s instruction,
and forsake not your mother’s teaching,
for they are a graceful garland for your head
and pendants for your neck.
My son, if sinners entice you,
do not consent (Proverbs 1:8–10).My son, if you receive my words
and treasure up my commandments with you,
making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
yes, if you call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures,
then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.
For the LORD gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding…
Then you will understand righteousness and justice
and equity, every good path;
for wisdom will come into your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul… (Proverbs 2:1–6, 9–10).
On the other hand, while those raised well need to seek for wisdom like the prize she is, others are also offered wisdom who have been lost in some level of folly.
Wisdom cries aloud in the street,
in the markets she raises her voice;
at the head of the noisy streets she cries out;
at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
and fools hate knowledge?
If you turn at my reproof,
behold, I will pour out my spirit to you;
I will make my words known to you (Proverbs 1:20–23).
Whatever the consequences of a foolish past, wisdom still calls to you. While there is a point where folly and sin completely destroy a person, until that point God is pleading with us to listen to wisdom.
Regretting past foolishness is stupid if it only discourages you from abandoning your foolish behavior. Yet that is a very easy error to make. People feel like past foolishness means they can’t embrace wisdom. Their circumstances are inevitably wrecked by their own choices. “When a man’s folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the LORD” (Proverbs 19:3). And many may not think they are raging. They blame themselves. But they allow discouragement with their self-made circumstances to deter them from making a new start.
But wisdom is best for dealing with all circumstances, even those you created through your own folly. On the other hand, compounding foolishness with more foolishness will make things worse.
And after you begin, you have to persevere. Wise parents can’t raise you well enough to protect you from your own foolish decisions as an adult. Solomon wants the son to seek wisdom and to keep at it as a lifelong practice.
“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9).