Zeal

Four verses caught my eye today. I'll write on one and possibly discuss it on Sunday, and I'll definitely cover the other three then. Today's verse is Proverbs 19:2:

It is not good to have zeal without knowledge,
   nor to be hasty and miss the way. 

As an aside, the new NIV Bible really changes this verse to:

Desire without knowledge is not good—
   how much more will hasty feet miss the way! 

 

I only show this to show that while there are minor changes from NIV version to version, sometimes there are significant changes. Whichever you prefer, the basic message is one that has special meaning to me, given  society's emphasis on "passion."

From time to time, people compliment me on a presentation and will mention how my "passion" really shows. I smile, thank them, and reply that I hope they liked the content of my message as much as my delivery. I could give a presentation on a subject on which I have no knowledge, camouflage (I did not know the correct spelling of that word prior to this, much to my chagrin) it with some fancy charts and graphs and deliver it flawlessly, but it would still be gibberish. All the passion in the world wouldn't cover up my complete lack of knowledge on a subject.

We've all heard people with vast knowledge that have no presentation skills (I sincerely hope you don't number me among them), and we know how difficult it is to sit through a bore-fest like that. Passion is an emotion, and emotions don't have to contain insight, thought or wisdom. Knowledge does, and Solomon is telling us to listen to what we hear, weigh it against what we know and not rush to judgment. In this day of near-instantaneous communication, haste can be a problem in that we can put forth bad information before we've had a chance to verify it. In the end, what we're being told is to not confuse the message with the messenger, and just like the rest of Proverbs, is still excellent advice for us today.

Scott