Leaders Know Where to Walk, Stand or Sit

Proverbs 17:12  (NIV) Better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs than a fool in his folly
Psalm 1:1 (NIV) Blessed (happy) is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers...

Does this verse in Proverbs 17 seem like a hyperbole --a bit melodramatic -- a stretch? A person living in folly is more deadly than a 500-pound Syrian Brown Bear, with bared teeth, menacing growl, towering height and long claws, diving down and running at us? We would desperately try never to tempt a bear to attack. We would avoid cute little bear cubs if we found them while hiking. Avoidance at all costs.  However, we are under greater threat from the "wisdom of this world" than from the physical attack of a known fearsome animal. Why is that? Perhaps, because the folly of fools fills us with false hope, or because it is so seductive-- it appeals to our self-centered natures. Who we look to for counsel (walk in the counsel) who we hang around with (stand in the way of) and where we sit to learn (sit in the seat of) affects our spiritual happiness. We are to be in the world, not of it. Where do you find your happiness?

Copyright © 2006 by P. Griffith Lindell