If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you (Proverbs 1:23).

There's this concept of "wisdom" as being personified in a small, withered, bearded, old man sitting in the lotus position at the peak of some remote and forbidding mountain.  If anyone would desire this wisdom, according to this particular scenario, he must climb the massive Himalayan heights carrying a single cup of water drawn from the Ganges River -- which can, upon arrival at the peak, be offered to the guru as a sign of his earnestness and the "price of admission" for a moment of sacred wisdom.  It's something so rare, so remote, so remarkable, that the wisdom can be attained no other way.

So imagine what it would be like for the pilgrim to get to the top of that mountain and have the guru splash the cup of water back in the pilgrim's face and say, "You dummy, why didn't you just read the sign at the bottom of the mountain that said: 'No Trespassing?!?!'  After the last week of snow, the weight of a single pilgrim on this mountain today is enough to cause a catastrophic avalanche.  Now we shall both die."  And immediately, a whole half of the mountain gives way beneath the two of them, and they both plummet to their death.

Perhaps this is an absurd scenario with limited instructional value.  But to me, it helps to visualize the truths of Proverbs 1:23.  We often knock ourselves out looking for wisdom and fulfillment and "the secret" to life -- when, in fact, we'd do better to follow the most basic instructions in front of us:  the things our spouses and roommates say to us, the things written on in contracts and on signs, the things that we've heard God say to us through the Bible.  The Bible, especially, is remarkable in its objectivity and concrete collection of truth.  It's guided the people of God for thousands of years, and it's wisdom is still every bit as relevant today as it was when it was first written.  But we still have to read it and respond to it.  If we maintain a sense of humility and obedience, God / wisdom / the Bible is ready and waiting to pour out all kinds of thoughts and emotions and realities for us to understand.  But we'll never get it, if we become too stuck on completing some predetermined pilgrimmage when in fact God just wants us to respond to what's right in front of us.

Forget the "deep truths" of life.  What are the basic plain-as-day truths that you're still not obeying?  How can you rearrange your life to conform to God's good and wise standards for simple-yet-whole-hearted discipleship?  How might God be rebuking you -- through the Bible, through others, through common sense -- and how can you respond to that rebuke?  Seeking out the answers to these questions is worth the while.