Two Verses

Two verses caught my eye today, hence the catchy title of this post. The first was Proverbs 14:15:

The simple believe anything,
   but the prudent give thought to their steps. 

Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:20-21, "Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good," instructing us that even with regard to God's word, we're to test it, see if it's correct. God asks us to have faith--he never said anything about it being BLIND faith.

This verse tells us to use wisdom and knowledge and not be taken in by false prophets or others who would try to mislead us. We're not being overtly told to be skeptical, but instead to not rashly jump to conclusions and think things through. I'm as guilty as anyone of hasty judgment, but usually only in situations where I have a decent knowledge base from which to work.

This isn't an excuse to do nothing. Occasionally, we rationalize inaction by saying we don't have enough information, and while that may be true, sometimes we need to act, knowing that we'll never have ALL the information we might want, but need to at least get started while trying to gain whatever additional knowledge we may need. 

The second verse is linked with this one, and is Proverbs 15:1:

A gentle answer turns away wrath,
   but a harsh word stirs up anger. 

 
It may come as a surprise to some of you, but I don't listen to everyone. What I mean by that is while I might hear everyone who talks to me, not everyone has my full ear on every subject. I use all the tools of discernment at my disposal to ferret out the chaff from the wheat, and sometimes, people talking to me are just plain wrong, for any number of reasons. You can usually tell when I stop speaking and just nod and say "I understand" a lot, but sometimes, misinformation needs to be corrected. Will yelling "You're just plain WRONG!" at the person work the trick? Highly unlikely, although it sure feels warranted sometimes. No, I usually try to present my side of a situation, which the other person is free to accept or reject, but there's a very serious quid pro quo at work here that I'm not sure people are truly aware of, which is, quite simply:

If it's okay for you to disagree with me...

WHY CAN'T I DISAGREE WITH YOU?

There will always be disagreements in life, and to expect otherwise is to set ourselves up for extreme disappointment. All Solomon is telling us is how best to handle these situations. It won't always work and sometimes people will be mad, even when I tell them I like to be proven wrong simply for the novelty factor (that's a joke--feel free to laugh). That might happen, but if I yell "WRONG!" every time, it WILL happen.

Scott