"Change" Agent

Proverbs 27:22
22Though you grind a fool in mortar, grinding him like grain with a pestle, you will not remove his folly from him.

Per the NIV Study Bible, mortar is a bowl and a pestle is a club-like tool used to pound grain in the bowl. This activity was used to alter or change the appearance of grain to make it more useful for cooking. King Solomon used this analogy because altering the state of grain during his time was a very tedious and harsh process as opposed to the exuberant machinery we have now for altering grain that makes it much quicker. No matter how severe a punishment one may inflict on another, if change is not what they want within themselves, it will not happen unless the Lord steps in. Many of us have fallen short to the idea that we can "change" a person or "make" them better. This would assume that the process is from outward actions. Change has to take place on the inside. But one has to be left with no recourse but change as the alternative and even then, it's still a choice. The Lord gave us free will. Free will to choose from right and wrong. No matter how high the stakes, if one doesn't desire change, we can't make them. Many of us have been caught in the "I can change them" scenario but it's a road that leads to nowhere but frustration to the attempted "change" agent. If the problem is a problem now, only the Lord can deliver them from it but the deliverance has to be desired. Deliverance from what? From whatever is undesirable. King Solomon refers to those who lack the desire for change as fools. Fools do not see what they're doing as wrong. And even if it's pointed out to them, they would rather be on the wrong path then right because it's what they know. Change requires doing and being someone better. Not everyone wants to be better simply because they don't want to or believe they can't be. The next time anyone makes attempts at "changing" someone, remember the tedious process of grinding grain in a bowl.