Your Favorite Sport? Wisdom or Wickedness

Proverbs 10:23:

"Doing wickedness is like sport to a fool,
And so is wisdom to a man of understanding."

This verse challenged me to ask the question: What is my favorite sport? Wisdom or wickedness. Just as I derive pleasure from sports, I should derive pleasure from living and thinking wisely and practically with godly insight.

What if men tossed back ideas on how to live wisely with the same pleasure and passion that accompanies memorizing stats, naming every member of their favorite team, setting up fantasy leagues, predicting how every NFL team will finish this year, and committing to watching countless sporting events on TV .

The same pleasure that comes from your favorite sport should come from walking in wisdom.

Of course sports is a good thing not a bad thing, but even the best things can become desperately wicked. Are you choosing wisdom or wickedness? What sport are best at?

Twelve Proverbs from Spurgeon, Part 2

"Make yourself an ass, and everyone will lay his sack on you."

"Man proposes, but God disposes."

"Never cackle till your egg is laid."

"One may say too much even upon the best subject."

"Paddle your own canoe."

"Praise invigorates the wise, but intoxicates the foolish."

"Pray to God, but keep the hammer going."

"Read men as well as books."

"Relatives are best with a wall between them."

"Ugly women, finely dressed, are the uglier for it."

"Zeal is fit only for wise men, but is mostly found in fools. The more's the pity if so it be."

And finally for the sake of Mother's Day:

"Never trust a man who will speak ill of his mother."

Salt Cellars, Volume 2, from the Charles H. Spurgeon Library, AGES Software

*These proverbs were compiled by Charles Spurgeon and not necessarily original to him.

Twelve Proverbs from Spurgeon

"A bad husband cannot be a good man
He fails in the tenderest duties, and must be bad at heart."

"A good husband makes a good wife."

"A fool is never wrong."

"Be low in humility but high in hope."

"Be not everybody's dog that whistles you."

"Be not first to quarrel, nor last to make it up."

"Do the duty that lies nearest thee."

"Even among apostles there was a Judas."

"Fore-think, though you cannot foretell."

"Good fences make good neighbors."

"Good things are often hard."

"If an ass goes a-traveling, he won't come home a horse."

Salt Cellars, Volume 1, from The Charles H. Spurgeon Library, AGES Software.

*These proverbs were compiled by Charles Spurgeon and not necessarily original to him.

The Wise and the Fool in Controversy

I read a very good Proverb the other day:

"When a wise man has a controversy with a foolish man,
The foolish either rages or laughs, and there is no rest." Prov. 29:9

This verse may be primarily referring to arbitration issues in court (see Dr. Bruce Walke's commentary), but I think that there is some truth here with regard to controversy in general be it: relational, doctrinal, political, etc...

Being wise does not mean that you avoid controversy, but wisdom is demonstrated in the way in which one handles controversy. Controversy will come to any person, but whether the person is wise or a fool is another story.

This verse says that foolish people laugh off controversy as if it is no big deal or they rage in anger and get overly worked up and take it too personally. A wise person doesn't rage or laugh. A wise person is sober and a wise person is joyfull and somehow walks that line well. I'm picturing the fool in two of the following ways: as a cable network commentator barking at someone and foaming at the mouth over the latest political issue or the a-theological hip pastor who doesn't give a rip about doctrine and just thinks biblical controversy's are meant for either endless sarcasm or perpetual passivity.

Being in a meaningful controversy means that there is no time for fun and games and constant cutsey-ness or for those that are going to shake with anger without listening to the issue at hand. The worst kinds of controvesy to be in is when someone is so furious that they don't listen to the other person or when one is so sarcastic and passive that you can tell that they really don't give a damn about you or the subject at hand and would just rather laugh you and that subject off.

Don't be that kind of person. It's possible to be wise in controversy, but no one should thrive on controversy. As the wise man, like the godly elder, is not "quarrelsome" (2 Ti. 2:24).

May God help me be wise in doctrinal controversy's, political controversy's, interpersonal controversy's, even legal controversy's, etc. This matters in your marriage, matters in your church, and matters in State. Wisdom cries out in the streets looking for people in controversy that are wise.