Proverbs 24:7 (MSG) Wise conversation is way over the head of fools; in a serious discussion they haven't a clue.
- James 1:26 (NIV) If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.
- I Peter 3:10 (NIV) For, "Whoever would love life and see good days and must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech...
I am struck how silly many discussions are generated in our culture today. TV sitcoms with their insipid and silly writing constantly distract. "Serious" TV news programs with the "new intelligencia" pontificating -- often without actual first source and/or authority often seem to be deep and wise when they are but simple propaganda. The Letterman, Leno interviews (and other similar TV shows) are trivial, at best. Nothing deep. And if a person being interviewed speaks of things "wise," show producers will soon end those conversations - they would be considered "not entertaining." And we as a nation do want to be entertained!
People who have a Godly basis to their conversations are not really understood by the masses, the media or the mighty. In May of last year Aspen mountaineer, Aron Ralston, using a pocketknife, amputated his own arm to survive a boulder that fell and trapped him in the rocks. Aron is a Believer and appeared on the Letterman show. Sadly, Dave did not really know how to even talk to him at a serious level - only the factual. Letterman was out of his element dealing with the quiet peace Aron projected about God's grace and care. He didn't have a clue. People magazine and the others like it, wrote long but trivial articles. They didn't have a clue.
We have a generation that seems to only want to talk about people, places and things. Conversations are not often about ideas, beliefs, and concepts. Where is the discussion of unintended consequences? Of foundational belief system? Of the path to integrity? Of truth? Of core beliefs? Of the role of holiness in a decision? Of the role of Wisdom?
I listened to the biography of John Adams while driving in one of our Portland trips. Big book. Long listening. I was entranced with the letters that flowed between John and his wife, his children and his friends. They were filled with Scripture and spiritual analogies. Adams was a man of the Word - as was his wife. It showed. He was well read in the Greek and Roman classics also; but his foundation, the plumb line of any of his thinking and comments about what he was reading, was always based on Scripture.
Wise conversation about business, conversation about ethics IS over the head of fools. I have experienced it in seminars and dinners. When Biblical principles are put forth, the eyebrows furrow; "they" don't get it. The recent Sarbanes-Oxley environment has produced much talking, little wise conversation. The world just does not "get it." Truth is relative to the majority of the audience and the end does justify the means - despite protestations to the contrary. As one executive put in, “The Ten Commandants haven’t worked; why should we think our rules will work?” Well, the Ten have worked and continue to work for those who follow Christ. A discussion of ethics without a discussion of morality and truth is useless, yet it happens often.
I recommend to you Rise of the New Ethics Class by Stephen Austin with Mary Steelman. These authors pull no punches: their examples are from scripture. Steve's validation of ethical principals in accounting is from Scripture. Their view is that America's businesses need a reformation so that biblical principles would replace the flimsy, amorphous, ever changing "ethics" of the world. They get it.
Wise conversation is simple. Not simplistic: serious not sensational. Can we talk? Really talk.
Copyright (c) 2005 by P. Griffith Lindell
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