Welcome to today's encouragement from our daily bread.

I'm Wyn Collier, and I'm reading the piece I wrote called Headlong Into Danger.

In 1892, a resident with cholera accidentally transmitted the disease via the Elba River

to Hamburg, Germany's entire water supply.

Within weeks, 10,000 citizens died.

Eight years earlier, German microbiologist Robert Koch had made a discovery.

Cholera was waterborne.

Koch's revelation prodded officials in large European cities

to invest in filtration systems to protect their water.

Hamburg authorities, however, had done nothing.

Citing costs and alleging dubious science,

they'd ignored clear warnings while their city careened

toward catastrophe. The book of Proverbs has a lot to say about those of us who see trouble,

yet refuse to act. A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions, reads Proverbs 2712.

When God helps us see danger ahead, it's common sense to take action to address the danger.

We wisely change course, or we ready ourselves with appropriate precautions that he provides.

But we do something. To do nothing is sheer lunacy. We can all

fail to miss the warning signs, however, and careen toward disaster. Verse 12 finishes with

The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences. In Scripture and in the life of Jesus, God shows us the path to follow and warns us of trouble

we'll surely face.

If we're foolish, we'll barrel ahead, headlong into danger.

Instead, as he leads us by his grace, may we heed his wisdom and change course.

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