Proverbs 16:25

Proverbs 16:25 There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

I recently read a story about a lost man who smashed his compass, thinking it was broken, because it wasn’t pointing where he thought it should.
Picture your own face. For most people, the best they can do is a vague image containing only those features that distinguish us from others. With a bit of work, you might be able to re-create a more detailed image.
Our brains, impressive as they are, can’t process the world around us in all its detail and complexity. That would take way too much time. So we create paradigms, models, mental maps to give us a handle to make things manageable. Just as a map cannot contain all that is in the area represented but only those features necessary for orientation, our mental maps are merely simplified images of the world around us. This map is essential, without it we wouldn’t be able to find the fridge or the toilette in our own homes. Our brains are constantly updating this map in order to make it conform to the world around us, or our perception of it anyway. Normally this amazing process works very well, but this survival mechanism becomes the very hurdle we must overcome in order to survive. Our need for orientation is so powerful that when we lose it we, well, lose it. We panic. Our frantic struggle to make our mental map line up with the world around us may cause us to run, to thrash around, to waste energy, to drown in thigh deep water, to swim downward when we think we’re swimming up, to run away from help, and, in short, get ourselves further lost.
Sometimes, instead of admitting that our mental maps are off, we ignore what’s right in from of our faces, making excuses for why we don’t see what we expected to see, sometimes to the point we subconsciously block things out and see things that aren’t there.
Our knowledge of the world around us, our mental map of the universe, covers only a tiny spec of the whole. Of that tiny spec of time and space, our understanding is far from perfect and sometimes completely wrong. Yet we live most of our lives with the illusion we know just where we are and where we’re going. This is when we get in trouble. How can we find our way if we can’t even admit we are lost?
Humility is the key to survival, to accept the reality that you know next to nothing, and what you do know you know imperfectly. It’s about flexibility, not stiffening you neck so it will be broken off, accepting correction.

2 I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.
3 Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.
4 Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.
6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. - Job 42:1

Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. - 1 Corinthians 10:12

Proverbs 9:8

Proverbs 9:8 Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.
9 Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.

The wise listen to wisdom and correction. They know their knowledge is limited, they are only human. Often our reaction to criticism is to defend or counter attack. This is a natural emotion when attacked, but not all criticism is offensive. Even if the purpose isn’t constructive, there maybe some truth in it. We should try to be “swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath” (James 1:19).

It is also good to remember how we feel when corrected before we correct others.