Why do good people make decisions they later regret? Often not for lack of intelligence, but for lack of conversation at the right moment. Sirach 37:16 places that missing moment at the very beginning.
Core Message of the Blog Post
The central message of this reflection is clear and powerfully consistent:
True wisdom in decision-making begins not with action, but with deliberate discussion and thoughtful counsel.
One-Line Essence
If distilled to its simplest form:
“Do not begin any meaningful work alone—seek counsel first, because wisdom grows in shared discernment.”
RISE & INSPIRE
Wake-Up Calls
Wake-Up Call No. 118 | 29 April 2026 | Post Streak No. 1010
Counsel Before the Work
Why True Wisdom Always Begins with a Conversation
Discussion is the beginning of every work, and counsel precedes every undertaking.
Sirach 37:16
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A Word Before We Begin
Today’s reflection is shaped by two applications drawn from the consolidated list that opens this devotional series: Decision-making and discernment from the Guidance and Practical Life category, and Leadership and character training from the Teaching and Education category.
I have chosen these two because the verse before us is unusually practical. It does not soar into mystery or descend into lament. It states a working principle for anyone who has ever picked up a tool, drafted a paper, raised a child, signed an agreement, or accepted a responsibility. It is a verse for the boardroom and the kitchen, for the courtroom and the classroom, for the sanctuary and the site office. So the reflection that follows asks two simple questions: how does this verse change the way I decide, and how does it change the way I lead others to decide?
Today’s reflection is written by Johnbritto Kurusumuthu, inspired by the Bible verse for 29th April 2026, shared this morning by His Excellency, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Selvister Ponnumuthan, Bishop of the Diocese of Punalur, a cherished practice he has faithfully continued for over three years.
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How This Reflection Is Built
The Wake-Up Call follows a five-movement pattern this morning. We begin by listening to the verse in its own setting, then we test it against the way most of us actually make decisions. From there we draw out the difference between true and false wisdom, because Sirach himself frames the chapter that way. We then translate the verse into a working method that any reader can use this very day. Finally, we close with a short prayer that turns the principle into a posture of the heart.
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1. Listening to the Verse in Its Own House
Sirach, also called Ecclesiasticus, is the long, patient, almost grandfatherly book of practical wisdom that the Catholic Church has cherished since the earliest centuries. Chapter 37 deals with the difficult art of choosing advisers. The author, Ben Sira, has just spent fifteen verses warning his reader against the friend who flatters, the counsellor who serves his own interest, the adviser who knows nothing of your trade, and the man who pretends to wisdom he does not possess. Then, almost as a hinge, comes verse sixteen.
Discussion is the beginning of every work, and counsel precedes every undertaking. The Greek verb behind discussion carries the sense of weighing a matter aloud, turning it over with another mind. Counsel is not a private hunch or a sudden conviction. It is the deliberate act of placing your situation under the gaze of someone who can see what you cannot. Ben Sira is telling us that no work, no undertaking, no decision worth its name should begin in the silence of one head alone.
2. How We Actually Decide
Be honest. Most of us do not begin our work this way. We begin with a feeling. We begin with a plan already half-formed in the shower or on the morning walk. We begin with the rush of a deadline or the pressure of someone waiting for an answer. By the time we ask anyone, we are not really asking. We are looking for confirmation. We have already decided. The conversation, if it happens at all, is decoration.
This is the false wisdom that Sirach warns against in the wider chapter. It wears the costume of consultation but has none of its substance. It collects opinions the way a verdict collects signatures, after the judgment is written. The verse before us is a quiet rebuke to that habit. Discussion is the beginning, not the appendix. Counsel precedes the undertaking, not the press release.
3. True Wisdom and False Wisdom
The chapter title in many study Bibles is True and False Wisdom. The distinction is not between the wise and the foolish in the obvious sense. It is between two kinds of intelligent people. The falsely wise are clever, well-read, articulate, often successful. They simply do not weigh. They speak before they listen, they act before they consult, they commit before they consider. Their projects often succeed in the short run because cleverness can carry a great deal of weight. But over time the unweighed decision exacts its price, and the price is usually paid by people who had no voice in the choice.
True wisdom, by contrast, is patient enough to be slow at the start so that the work can be swift later. It treats the question as bigger than the questioner. It assumes that another mind, another conscience, another set of eyes will see something my own loyalty to the plan has hidden from me. It is willing to be talked out of an idea before the idea has cost anyone anything. That willingness, that openness to being persuaded before the work begins, is one of the surest marks of a soul that walks with God.
4. Turning the Verse into a Method
If the verse is to do its work in us today, it has to leave the page and become a habit. Here is one way to translate Sirach 37:16 into a method you can use before the sun sets this evening.
Before the next decision of any weight, however small it may seem, pause long enough to name three things on paper or in your prayer. Name the work you are about to begin. Name the person whose counsel would actually stretch your thinking, not merely echo it. Name the moment, with a date, by which you will have spoken to that person.
Then keep the appointment with yourself. The discipline is not in the asking. It is in arranging your life so that the asking happens before the doing, not after.
For those who lead, whether in a classroom, a parish, a residents association, a department, a family, or a public office, the verse becomes a charter. A leader who decides alone teaches everyone under him to decide alone. A leader who consults builds a culture in which consultation is normal, expected, and unhurried. The verse is therefore not only a private rule. It is the architecture of a healthy institution.
5. A Prayer for the Weighing Mind
Lord of all good counsel, you who placed wisdom at your right hand before the world began, slow my eager heart this morning. Before I begin the work that lies before me, draw me into the company of those who can see what I cannot. Free me from the false confidence that mistakes haste for clarity. Give me ears patient enough to be persuaded, and a will humble enough to be reshaped. Let every undertaking of this day rest first on the foundation of careful counsel, so that what I build may stand. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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A Closing Word
Sirach 37:16 is not a verse for the spectacular moments of life. It is a verse for the ordinary morning, the open inbox, the contract on the desk, the conversation that needs a difficult answer. It does not promise that consulted decisions will always be successful. It promises something deeper. It promises that the soul which has learned to weigh before it works has begun to walk in the company of true wisdom. And in the long arithmetic of a life, that company is everything.
Begin the work today, but begin it on its proper foundation. Begin it with a discussion. Begin it with counsel. Begin it as Ben Sira, and the Spirit who breathed through him, would have you begin.
John Britto Kurusumuthu
Author, Rise & Inspire
Closing Engagement Question
Where in your life have you felt the cost of a decision made without real counsel, and what would change if you placed Sirach 37:16 at the start of your next undertaking?
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