Foolish Or Wise?

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

Audio version at http://tinyurl.com/ynloep

Have you ever looked back on some action and thought or said, “Now that wasn’t very smart of me, was it?” I think everyone has those moments in their past where a poor decision is realized as being foolish.

In fact, many people can look back on their foolish choices, correct them, learn from them and then use those situations to teach others how not to act. Everyone makes foolish choices from time to time. But the foolishness isn’t permanent unless we refuse to make corrections.

My great-grandmother was around 90 years old when she made a very foolish decision. She lived with my grandparents and one winter day they had gone to the store for groceries leaving my great-grandmother at home. A snow had fallen a day before and then that white snow received a thick covering of freezing rain.

My great-grandmother, all 4 feet 9 inches of her, decided that the birds needed some bread to eat. Instead of just opening the back door and tossing out the bread to the birds, she decided, foolishly, to take the bread out to where the birds are.

She took one step and promptly fell down the steps on to the concrete patio below. She broke her hip. She was now below the level of the door and unable to reach the handle to open it. For about 2 hours she remained on the icy snow until my grandparents returned home and found her.

She had her hip fixed and recovered nicely from her accident. I remember her telling the story and laughing about how silly she was to make such a poor decision. “I don’t know why I thought those birds couldn’t just fly to where I was instead of me thinking that I had to take the bread out to them.”

Part of her problem, of course, was that her foundation or footing was not good. And because that foundation was slick and unsure she tumbled down and suffered.

The Bible speaks of poor foundations as well. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says the following in Matthew 7:24-27.

Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.

In the religious world today many people want to have religion or church but do not want to build it upon the foundation of Jesus Christ and His words. Instead of building on the rock of our Redeemer, they are choosing to build their faith on the sands of their own self-importance.

Instead of doing the will of Jesus they follow after their own will. When the storms of life beat down upon those churches they will fall because they are not built on the right foundation.

Our children learn about this principle from the song about these two builders. You remember the lyrics, I’m sure. With a catchy tune, the children learn that the wise man’s house stands firm after the storm. But because the foolish man’s house was built on a sandy foundation it could not withstand the pressures of the storm. That house fell.

The admonition of the last verse of the song may not be fully understood by children, but should be heeded by all of us. “Build your house on the Lord Jesus Christ.” “And the blessings will come down.”

Friends, it really just comes down to a simple choice. What will you do when you hear the words of Jesus? Will you hear them and do them like the wise man? Or will you hear them and then not do them like the foolish man?

On Our Daily Walk today, may we determine that should we ever make a foolish choice regarding God that we will change our ways quickly and learn from our mistake.

Our thought for the day: “A foolish man uses wisdom to explain his foolishness; a wise man uses foolishness to explain his wisdom.”

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.