Sometimes we think, “How can intelligent people do such dumb things?” We can all recall people who started out well and ended up poorly because they made poor decisions, took careless actions, or for a few moments of passion ruined their careers, reputation, another’s life, or their own. What possessed them in those moments to make those decisions and pursue such a disastrous course of action? Today we look at the wisest of all people of his day, Solomon, and see how he made life choices that caused his world to implode. He started out well but ended poorly. Eugene H. Peterson, in his book A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society, writes, “There is a great market for religious experience in our world; there is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for a long apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness.” Solomon started well by seeking God to give him wisdom. He ended poorly when the wisdom God gave him clashed with the culture around him. He left his heart unguarded and chose foolishly.