He who walks with the wise grows wise, but the companion of fools suffers harm. (Proverbs 13:20)
We are the company we keep, so the popular saying goes. Our developing character is a product of our personality, the large and small decisions we make and the input we receive from friends, family and others. I am blessed to have some very wise people who have walked with me; my parents first and foremost, Sue (who is full of common sense wisdom she readily shares) and mentors through different stages of life. I have also been served wonderfully by wise companions I have never met but who nonetheless speak volumes into my life; authors ancient and modern.
Dallas Willard and Richard Foster have lead me into the life-transforming application of the spiritual disciplines. John Wesley has challenged me to squeeze the most out of every day through his diary. Tim Winton, Cormac McCarthy and Flannery O'Connor have poetically inspired me. Theologians like Jurgen Moltmann and Stanley Hauerwas have stretched me. Biblical scholars Walter Bruegemann, Ben Witherington and others have opened the expanse of scripture for me. And the list goes on.
I have walked with these wise people and others and have been blessed as a result. I have grown in wisdom in ways that I do not even yet recognise. And I am inspired to walk further with them and with others as I read and study and reflect on the wonder of God and the world God has made.
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