For Those Mourning Their Own Foolishness
My friend is going to egg-grading class this week. We listened to her hens clucking all through the dinner we enjoyed on their back patio the other night, and then as we walked through the house later, my friend stopped and held up two eggs.
We pondered how to grade those eggs, and that was an amusing discussion.
They both look the same.
Try shaking them.
Try weighing them in your hands.
Yeah, we have no idea how to know if an egg is good or not.
We’re going to study Proverbs in my Spanish classes this year, so I’ve been reading what Scripture says about the fool, and I’m going to brag that my fool-grading capabilities have grown extensively over the years.
There were things I said 10 years ago that seemed awesome in the moment, but now I’m looking back, holding those words in my hand, saying, That was your high-grade foolishness right there.
I’ve been a bad egg on many an occasion. Call me Veruca Salt. (Name the movie!)
So I’ve been thinking hard on my own foolishness and have come up with some random truths from the Bible that are encouraging.
Ten Hopeful Truths about Foolishness
- In Proverbs, Solomon urges the young men not to hang out with foolish people, but I notice Jesus hunted out foolish people. Jesus looks for and rescues fools from themselves, if they at least have enough sense to follow him.
- When we recognize our own foolishness, it is proof we are becoming wiser.
- Great sadness over our own foolish behavior is a blessed proof that the Spirit of God lives inside us, showing us what is good and bad.
- God actively and consistently disciplines the fool right out of us, because he loves us too much to let us act like idiots for eternity.
- Solomon says that whoever walks with the wise grows wise (Proverbs 13:20), so every minute we spend reading the Bible and praying is investment in our own growth toward wisdom. It also means that I need you to grow in wisdom, so you can rub off on me. And vice versa, I suppose.
- Before we knew Jesus, we had to be fools because our owner insisted on it. Now we don’t. Jesus is Lord, and he sources power to change.
- Someday, when we’re with the Lord in heaven, every last ounce of foolishness will be gone from our souls. We will wake up wise, be wise all day long, and go to bed wise. Hallelujah.
- Jesus promises to forgive us when we do something foolish, if we ask him to.
- What we need most from each other is a great overlooking of foolishness. Just look right over the top of that remnant fool inside of me. Thank you.
- If you do something foolish, I will humbly forgive you –one fool to another.
My friends with the hens (read that out loud just for fun) will learn how to grade their eggs, and we must learn to tell the difference between wisdom and foolishness.
We can start here…
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom… (Proverbs 9:10 NIV)