The Plumbline

The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an oracle, is inborn in us. (Paul Valery) The woman named Folly is brash. She is ignorant and doesn’t know it. She sits in her doorway on the heights overlooking the city. She calls out to men going by who are minding their own business. “Come in with me,” she urges the simple. To those who lack good judgment, she says, “Stolen water is refreshing; food eaten in secret tastes the best!” But little do they know that the dead are there. Her guests are in the depths of the grave. (Proverbs 9:13-18) To those who lack good judgment - I daresay I have been there at times, how about you? Those moments when we act without thinking, speak without considering the impact of our words, or purchase without contemplating the impact on our lives happens to all of us on occasion. Folly is brash - there is much that calls out to us these days from the 'door...

As dead flies cause even a bottle of perfume to stink, so a little foolishness spoils great wisdom and honor. A wise person chooses the right road; a fool takes the wrong one. You can identify fools just by the way they walk down the street! (Ecclesiastes 10:1-3) If you ever wondered about some of your decisions in life, you are not alone. I have built stuff, then looked at it a few years later wondering why I put it there or how come the materials haven't held up to the elements. I have said I'd do something, not really thinking through the demand it would place on my body or the time it would take. We all make those 'snap decisions', wondering desperately why we made THAT choice instead of the other. The hope is that we make wise ones, but truth be told, we ALL make some pretty foolish ones on occasion. What we do with that 'not very wise' choice is important. We can flounder around, looking for ways to escape the foolishness of it all, or we can simply go alo...

The   Lord   sees everything you do,  and he watches where you go.  An evil man will be caught in his wicked ways;  the ropes of his sins will tie him up.  He will die because he does not control himself,  and he will be held captive by his foolishness. (Proverbs 5:21-23) If we think we are not being 'observed' in our folly, we might want to reconsider that belief because God misses nothing. The moment I said that some of us cringed, thinking about something we said, thought, or did in the past 24-48 hours, having hoped God didn't know about it. We all have those moments - wishing we hadn't acted the way we did, but knowing we somehow received grace and healing even after 'acting badly'. God's grace amazes me each and every time. We don't deserve it, but somehow it is right there for those of who call upon his name for it - not once, but each and every time. Evil men are indeed 'roped' by their sins - binding them to the guilt and shame of it. Th...

  Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other.  Act  on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like. (James 1:22-24) I have been fooled by a good many things in this lifetime and there are still other things just waiting to dupe me at some point down the road, even my own folly. Since coming to Christ, I'd have to admit my own folly doesn't quite dupe me as it did once upon a time. In fact, even considering something kind of foolish now causes me a moment or two of pause and reflection. I have learned to consider my course - choose my steps a little better than I did in my youth. It certainly didn't come easily, though. Our folly has a loud and continually beckoning voice! It wants one way and that is its own way. Attempt to shut that voice down and you might just ...

As kids, we had all these little rhymes we'd say on occasion, like the one we used when we caught someone fibbing:  "Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire".  Or maybe the one when the batter was up to the plate and we wanted to distract the pitcher from being able to concentrate on throwing the ball:  "We want a pitcher, not a belly itcher".  Or the one we used when we wanted the batter to have a less chance of hitting the ball:  "Hey, Batter, Batter, SWING".  Pointing out that we knew someone was trying to pull one over on us by the "Liar, Liar" one was just kind of our way of letting them know we found them out and we weren't falling for their mischief or prank.  Rattling the pitcher or hitter was just a way of trying to stack the cards in our favor when we had a batter up to bat who needed a few "balls" to come there way, or we wanted a hitter to miss the ball!  If they didn't get a few balls and an occasional walk, they almost didn...

A long time ago, I thought the only way to deal with foolish individuals was to talk them out of their foolishness.  Let me be the first to confess - the only thing this did was make a fool of me!  Why?  Fools cannot be talked out of their foolishness - they need an up-front and personal encounter with Jesus - not with my reasoning, rationalization, or even arguments which point out all the ways contrary to the ways they have chosen to act. This is why you won't find me debating with those who show up on my doorstep to "win me over" to their faith. I will simply state that I am a follower of Christ, very pleased with this deeply personal relationship I share with him, and have my hope of salvation pretty well "nailed down".  If this peaks their interest, I certainly will go on to share why it is I have this hope, but I don't spend hours debating with them why their "religion" is flawed.  I need to simply state the truth for the hope which I have w...

Did you know what a troponym is?  I didn't either, but learned it this morning!  I knew about synonyms, antonyms, and other "parts" of speech, but troponyms escaped me!  It is a word which denotes the manner we do something.  For example, shuffling is a manner of walking (a troponym which describes the manner in which walking is performed).  So, I had to look up the "troponym" for "ridicule" this morning, as this word came to me at about two this morning and just kept running through my mind.  Here's a little of what I discovered are the various "ways" we ridicule (poke fun at) another: - We tease.  This is a type of mocking or playful "making fun of" kind of action. - We lampoon.  This is a type of "satire" such as when we ridicule with sarcasm, often pointing out their vices with a little bit of humor. - We expose.  This seemed like an odd way to describe ridicule, but it really does because we often "uncove...

My pastor aptly states, "Wisdom is not what you know, but what you show."  I cannot think of a better way to describe wisdom.  Many think wisdom comes with age - the older we are, the more wise we become because of what we have experienced.  Not always true!  Sometimes we can experience the same "bad" events over and over again, never learning anything from them!  There has been no learning - so there is nothing new to "show" from the event.  It is likely to be repeated until we learn to "show" what it is God desires to see! The wisdom of the wise keeps life on track;  the foolishness of fools lands them in the ditch.  (Proverbs 14:8 MSG) The writer of Proverbs gives us two scenarios - one of a life which seems to be on track, the other of one which leaves us stuck in the ditch.  As a teenager, I took driver's education classes, but never got my driver's license until I entered the military.  Needless to say, when I finally held the ...