Wise

Doing wrong is fun for a fool, but living wisely brings pleasure to the sensible. Proverbs 10:23

 

Having 60 years to look back upon allows one to see changes and trends that, when you are in the middle of them, you don't see them and, sometimes, refuse to see them. One thing I have noticed as I go around the church is that there are more occasions where I find (even on Sunday mornings) things left a mess and even purposely messed up – small, but real, vandalism, which someone else will clean up. Things for which my mom would have "boxed my ears in" (her phrase, actually, another part of my anatomy was involved.) She knew everything I did. The community (neighbors, school, parents, and church) would tell her. While she did ask me what I did, she usually agreed that those in the community were right and I had something to learn. We had community standards and the community upheld them.

 

Which brings me to consider this. We do not have as close a community in which to raise children as we once did. We often refuse to accept that our children/grandchildren are off track. Either that or we have little time to monitor children because we have crammed so much in our calendar. We dare not speak of other people's children for fear of reprisal. We do not have a clear norm for community behavior. Maybe we don't even have any real community. I am reading Leviticus (yes, people do read it) right now and, if one thing is clear, they had community and community standards. AND…they lost them.

 

Solomon, writing in Proverbs above, saw the same thing thousands of years ago. We resist wisdom because foolishness seems so much fun (short term relief.) But foolishness does have long-term effects that injure the fool and the fool's community.

 

Today, resist the short-term high of foolishness. Encourage true community. Embrace wisdom in playing a responsible part in community be it family, neighborhood, school, church or city. Be wise today.