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I Pity the Fool

"It is one's honor to avoid strife, but every fool is quick to quarrel."
Proverbs 20:3

Everybody knows one. At least one. It's that person that, regardless of all the good that is happening, regardless of the evidences of God's hand, there is always something to complain about. There is always something to be discontent about. Often masked as a suggestion or a "great" idea that is trying to solve a "problem," the real underlying spirit is one of division and of criticism. There is no pursuit of peace. There is not a spirit of contentment. There is not a desire to be in unity.

Sure, there is the profession of all those things, but the proof is in the fruit and the fruit is all wrong.

The proverb tells us that when we avoid strife, it is to our honor. Strife is being angry or bitter over fundamental issues. It's just the basic stuff. God says we should avoid causing problems over the basic stuff, but that's where we love to cause the most problems. Why? Because it could go either way. The basic things aren't always clear. The basic things aren't always black and white. The basic things leave a lot of gray room. There is space for strife. So, in our all-knowing, self-driven kind of way, we interject strife into the life of our community. Little stuff. Unimportant stuff. Stuff that if left alone wouldn't add up to a hill of beans if we'd just, you know, leave it alone.

But we don't.

The proverb also tells us that a fool is quick to quarrel. In other words, the fool is quick to engage the strife. The fool is quick to find the gray and demand it be black. The fool is quick to see something that was not a problem for anyone else, and like a self-appointed caped crusader, swoop in to save the day that no one wanted or needed saved.

Why? Because they are a fool.

The Bible also says to stay away from fools.


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