Proverbs 29:9 sure does feel like a a huge horse pill full of essential godly nutrients for my sickly spirit.
"If a wise man has an argument with a fool, the fool only rages and laughs, and there is no quiet."
At first glance, my mind immediately wanders to images of red, steamy faced people hurling insults, rebuttals, excuses, and judgments; some images from recent years (yes, the bible does not discriminate by age), from as early as grade school, and onto high school, where teachers join the crowd. As they seem to disipate in my mind, one particular example seems to stand out.
I am on top of a hill waiting for a helicopter to land to take my crew's dirty, exhausted remnants of bodies back to town after another long day of seismic oil exploration work, (I will be sure to add that chapter of my life at another time) I quietly am reading my bible while the ten men around me pick up rocks with sea shell imprints in them and hide them away in various areas of their person. They believe these to be artifacts worth lots of money (tee, hee, hee), and we were working on private property, so they proceeded to steal them with the intentions of making millions. Here I am minding my own business when the one called, due to the age on the crew, "Dad", looks at me and says in a sarcastic tone something like, "What do your scriptures have to say about this?" as he holds up a square-foot size imprint of some sea creature. And as he seethes and fumes, I proceed to tell him of Creation and move quickly on to the Flood. As I am about one quarter of the way through the history, someone interjects (I had not noticed that practically everyone had been listening to me) a comment something like what you would expect to come out of an insecure junior-higher about Evolution and how Creation is stupid. Then everyone- I mean everyone- circles around me, points their fingers at me and laughs.
"...the fool only rages and laughs"
Then the fog of memories lift and my thoughts turn inward. I think on times I have been on the other side. Maybe I haven't been pointing and laughing, but I know I definitely have had my feathers ruffled a time or two. That begs the question most pronounced in my heart. "Am I the fool?" This sets me on a trail to discover how to identify the fool.
We know from Proverbs 29:11 "A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds back", that a fool is distinguished by his reaction to something said. This is already backed up by the verse that started me on this journey "the fool only rages and laughs". In conclusion, we can state that a fool can be judged by his outward actions. That is how we can identify others as fools.
But what about us? How do I determine when I fall into this category, for surely I will not claim that I have never been a fool. What of my heart? The untold accusations, name-calling, and belittling that goes on in there and no one but my heavenly Father hears? How many times am I pointing a finger and laughing in my heart? "...For out of the heart the mouth speaks", "take every thought captive", and "everyone who hates his brother is a murderer" creep up on me and expose my guiltiness.
So, whether I enjoy this unappetizing super-food or not, I delight in the truth and the light it sheds on the darkness in my heart. I delight myself in God's Word to me proclaiming "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners (or fools), Christ died for us". (commentary mine) I delight in being humbled. I delight that I cannot pass over scriptures about the fool. I will have to examine myself, realizing over and over again it is a category I stumble into far too often, all the while praising my Savior for choosing to shepherd an ignorant dumb sheep--me.
Are you having to swallow a spiritual pill today?
