Proverbs 18:2 -"A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions."
Proverbs 12:23 "A prudent man conceals knowledge, But the heart of fools proclaims foolishness."
The topic of telling the truth to people has come up on my FB page more that once. Basically, the post seems to say or imply that telling people the truth isn't being mean it's being forthright. I can relate as at times I have tended to just tell people what I thought about things because I was convinced of my own rightness; that is just arrogance. In fact, a friend of mine at our going away to Ukraine Luau said, "Before I met Alan, I thought that I was the most arrogant person..." So as to say that he found me to be quite arrogant. Of course, I tend to think of myself as being well informed and humble. But as I pass the 60-year mark I find that I am not as smart as I thought I was. I am finding that if I shut my mouth and listen and stop trying to win the argument, I can learn a few things.
People who are convinced of their rightness are often just prattling fools. They are self-deceived and in need of a Jethro Leroy Gibbs reset (slap in the back of the head). What is funny as those very prattling fools I am talking about won't even realize that I am talking about them, just as I wouldn't have.
I don't know if is age or time, or just God's relentless transformative work, but it seems that this lesson isn't learned for most until after the age of 50. When we are young, we tend to think we are the first to discover a concept and that everyone older than us is terribly uninformed. But as time goes on some of those things that we were so convinced of as eternal truths turn out to be fanciful thinking and mere opinion. Part of this can be explained by the scientific fact that our brains don't finish growing until we are in our twenties. Then our brains continue to mature and make more connections as we mature. We may lose some of our brains elasticity as we get older, but ordinarily, we don't get dumber.
Those who claim the premise of being right or knowing the truth at the expense of others have not learned that it is Love, not Truth or Knowledge that is the trump card. When you dismiss someone else's dignity because you think you are right you have missed the point and you are just a self-important fool who is more interested in your own opinion than in what is really right and true.
The fool thinks him/herself wise but their lack of love for others, their use of abusive language and their demeaning of others tells another story, Jesus said you will know a tree by its fruit. Good fruit is Agape love. Good fruit is respect for human dignity. The bad tree fails to see anything but its own truncated perspective and spews its own vile and prideful attitudes and calls it truth. Good fruit is born out of humility and time spent with the Master.
So the next time you are convinced that you are right - think twice. You may just be a noisy gong and clanging cymbal devoid of God's love.
In Him
Preacher Al
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