Have you heard of the Solomon Paradox? King Solomon is one of the most famous characters of the Old Testament, and he was widely known as the wisest man in the world. He ruled with profound wisdom, and one of his most notable feats was being able to figure out the mother of a baby well before DNA was even a thing.
He was known for being a just king and was the last King of Israel before the split. Many people came from far and wide to listen to his words of wisdom. So much so that he even had an entire book of the Bible dedicated to his wise words. That’s just how wise Solomon was seen.
But then, he only seemed to have all these abilities when it came to other people. Because in his private life, he was basically a mess. He was probably the most promiscuous King in the entire list of kings, with approximately 300 wives and 700 concubines. He wasn’t as good a father to Rehoboam as David had been to him. He didn’t pass on the wisdom or teachings that he had gotten from his experience as a King. And as a result, one of the first things that Rehoboam did when he became King was to split Israel in two.
Now, this is not a Bible lecture, but to tell you about the Solomon Paradox. It’s something that the majority of us are guilty of, even without noticing it. We find it easier to give good advice and teachings to others, but we fail to apply those same principles in our personal lives. We can look at other people and tell them that their problem is consistency, and we advise them to be consistent in what they do, and they’ll be fine. Yet, in our homes, we’re also struggling with procrastination.
It’s just like a teacher who is known to help students pass exams in flying colors, but for some reason, their own kids keep struggling academically. Like, these advices you keep giving to others for free, these tenets of wisdom you keep on displaying, why don’t you apply them in your own life?
Sometimes, even I ask myself the same question. When friends come to me about certain things going on in their lives, especially things that I’m also going through, I can definitely relate. I give them advice that I have yet to try. It’s good advice and I know that it’d work, but I just delay myself from following it. I know the right thing to do, I know it would work, but I just delay and delay.
This is why some issues will always raise concerns in various aspects of our lives. People these days prefer to learn by watching you, and not by listening to your teaching. Because you can’t be telling us to do one thing but your actions are showing us something else. Police can’t be telling us that breaking and entering is a crime, but they’d also be kicking in doors at midnight and harassing people. As a leader, you can’t be telling people to stay away from corruption while also blatantly showing off the proceeds from your own acts of corruption.
We give advice that we don’t follow, and we tell people to do things that we won’t do. I remember one time when my former landlady used to always interrogate me because she thought I smoked weed. Her reason was that weed was smelling in the compound, and she assumed I was the culprit. So, she spent precious hours telling me how smoking was bad and belonged only to criminals. Meanwhile, she was blissfully ignorant of the fact that her own children -both male and female- were the smokers in the compound. All the advice she was giving me should have been directed back to her home!
Charity begins at home. There are people who go about being the nicest guys in the community. They help out, they’re in a billion NGOs, and they’re volunteering in different groups all over the place. Yet, their home life is a mess! Do they get so carried away with helping others that they forget their own home? Do they get so involved in watching other people that they forget that they should watch their own as well?
So, this is a call to action! That advice you give to people, do you follow it? Yeah, we know it’s good advice, we know it’s insightful. Now, from your well of wisdom, give yourself some advice and follow it! Because most of the time, we know what we need to do, we’re just waiting for someone to tell us to do it. Maybe as a way to avoid responsibility. Because then if things don’t work out, you can say it wasn’t your choice, you did it because you were told to.
So, what’s your reason?
