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Desire

             Desire without knowledge is not good — how much more will hasty feet miss the way! (Proverbs 19:2)

What did you want to be when you grew up? I went through lots of phases: cop, doctor, superhero, lawyer, Enterprise crew member, singer, wildlife manager/ranger, and astronomer, among others. Most of those ideas sort of faded away quietly. The one that I remember thinking through before I changed my mind was the wildlife manager idea. What I wanted was to be Grizzly Adams – to go make friends with the critters. However, knowledge got in the way. I have allergies. I am not fond of extreme temperatures.  At the time, I wasn’t all that keen on getting dirty or encountering bugs (especially spiders!) And I didn’t want to shoot a critter and take it out to the boonies to release it. For that matter, if I shot at a critter, the trees or a fellow ranger would be more likely to get tranquillized than the critter. My knowledge of myself and the realities I’d likely face won out over my desire.

We live in a time that seems to me to be drastically, dramatically, and dangerously focused on desire without knowledge. I suppose it’s always been true. We decide what we desire for ourselves, those around us, our communities, our government, etc., declare that they should be, and never bother to examine why they are the way they are or what the cost of that reality would be.

When Scripture says that desire without knowledge is not good, it does not involve an arbitrary judgment. It’s being very practical and realistic. When we rush our decisions, we often discover our choices aren’t the best. And this isn’t just a personal matter. One of the processes recommended in my Master Gardener’s Program is Integrated Pest Management (IPM). When people see bugs like Japanese Beetles, they come to the garden center looking for something to spray on their plants to kill the bugs. Some come in for traps. The point is that they want the thing that they can use once, and the pest problems are over. IVP learning about the plants and choosing those that are less attractive to the bugs, learning about the soil and other needs of the plant so the plants are strong enough to withstand the bugs, studying the bugs and their lifecycles and what other bugs eat them,  learning about trap plants and  plans that might confuse or discourage the bugs, and then, having studied everything you can taking the least invasive, least drastic, and least harmful, least drastic options. We don’t want to stand next to their rosebushes for 30 minutes per day for knocking the Japanese beetles into a bucket of soapy water.

Are we really any different when it comes to other complex issues in our lives? Or even simple issues? 

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