Proverbs 1:22

In the book of Proverbs, Wisdom is personified as a woman who walks through public places — city gates, busy streets — calling out to people who are ignoring her. This verse is her frustrated cry. She names three distinct types of people: the 'simple,' who are naive and haven't examined their lives carefully; 'mockers,' who use cynicism and ridicule as a shield against being challenged; and 'fools,' who don't just lack wisdom but actively hate it. The question 'how long?' is not gentle encouragement — it's a confrontation. Wisdom has been standing at the door for a long time, and she's asking why people keep choosing ignorance when something better is available.

God, I don't want to be someone who keeps choosing the comfortable fog of not knowing. Open my mind to truth that challenges me, and give me the courage to keep learning even when it costs me something. Don't stop calling. Amen.

There's a particular kind of person who's allergic to being wrong. They've built an identity around being skeptical, unimpressed, too sharp to be taken in — and so whenever wisdom shows up, they mock it before it can get close enough to challenge them. The mocker in Proverbs isn't stupid. They're defensive. And maybe that's what makes this verse sting: we can recognize ourselves in it. Not always in the fool who hates knowledge outright, but sometimes in the person who laughs something off, scrolls past it, files it under 'not for me' — because sitting with it might require changing. Wisdom's question — 'how long?' — carries a weight that feels almost sad. Like someone who's been waiting at your door for years, not angry, just tired of waiting. You may know right now what area of your life you've been refusing to examine. The assumption you've held onto because questioning it would cost you something. The habit you've never brought into the light. The door is still open. Wisdom is still calling. What would it actually cost you to finally answer?