A man finds joy in giving an apt reply -- and how good is a timely word! (Proverbs 15:23)

Have you ever walked away from an conversation with a nagging sense of incompletion and dissatisfaction, only an hour later to realize what would have been the perfect response?  Ah, that's what I should have said!  Oh, if only I had thought of that while we were talking!  Man, that would have been the perfect counterpoint to his argument about such-and-such!  This kind of thing happens to me all the time.  It could be pondering how I might have cleverly responded to a personal insult, or one little extra thing that might have tipped the balance in my favor when pleading my case before some government official, or a subtle bit of nuance that might have helped avoid hurting a friend's feelings while still getting my essential points across... After these types of interactions, I can go over and over and over the conversation in my mind, like a video editor scrubbing through the footage to find just the right frame where I could insert a brief cut-away that would entirely change the flow of events.  I sometimes wonder if this might be my preferred superhero persona in life (you know, "If you could have any superhero power in life, what would it be?") -- the ability to rewind, edit, and fast-forward the footage of life.

So Proverbs 15:23 resonates strongly with me.  If I could derive some satisfaction from playing the role of "The Editor," how much more amazing would it be to just come up with the perfect response right there, on the spot, in real time?!?  This is, to me, one of the most immediate gratifications of wisdom:  the sharpness of reflex that helps us to know what to say and when to say it.  One of the most dominant themes of the Proverbs is the power of our words and their direct correlation to our level of wisdom.  As I get closer to God and more closely emulate His priorities, I grow in wisdom.  And as I grow in wisdom, I use my words more effectively and less foolishly.  And as I use my words more effectively, I find joy and goodness.  It's a pretty direct line of reasoning, which helps me to see how the Proverbs immediately translate into benefits for my day-to-day life.

So in a way, you could say that the Proverbs give us powers that are even better than our fantasy super-powers.  Why aspire to be The Editor, when I can aspire to God's Wisdom?  Why choose to stop, start, and edit life's conversations, when I can trust God to help me get it right the first time?  Well... I guess there's still the mask and cape and alter-ego persona that gives some attraction to the superhero thing... but if you really wanted to adapt these things to wisdom, I'm sure that something could be worked out.