We've started a couple of new things at our local church.  One is a weekly coffee meeting every Wednesday at a local restaurant.  We meet every Wednesday morning, very early (for me, at least - 7:00 AM is usually "wake up "time, not "be someplace" time), and chat about things of interest to any of us, then have a time of informal Bible study and prayer.

We've chosen to study the book of Proverbs, each day taking a different chapter and each of us will take a proverb or two and look at them with the group.

The book of Proverbs has been a personal issue with me for a long time.  Why should we listen to supposedly the  wisest man ever to live if he wasn't wise enough to listen to his own advice?  Was he really all that wise?  I mean really, how many wives did he have?  How smart can THAT be?

I've decided to ignore my own questions, however, and am going to try to look at a different proverb each day.  I may or may not keep to that schedule, but we'll see.  Since Proverbs has 31 chapters, I'll try to look at one from the appropriate chapter based on the day of the month.  Since today is the 18th, I'll start in chapter 18.

Let's look at verse two: Proverbs 18:2.

The Holman Christian Standard Bible has it like this:

 2 A fool does not delight in understanding,
    but only wants to show off his opinions.

Solomon talks a lot about fools - I guess when you're the wisest man in the world it's easy to identify the fools.  He seems to be spot on, too.  Unfortunately, I often find myself in how he describes the fool.  That's the case here.  How often do I not hear what is being said because I'm thinking of how I'm going to respond.  I don't really care to understand what is being told me, I just want to answer and show off my "wisdom".  Bummer, Solomon.  Way to make me stop and think.

I wonder how many bloggers  (and non-bloggers as well) have thought about this concept, and if so, if it has had any effect on their thought process.   We would all do well to consider Solomon's treatment of fools, and then, after we've seen ourselves look at the antithesis of the fool Solomon presents and learn how to be truly wise.

By the way, if you're in beautiful downtown Indian River, Michigan on a Wednesday morning, stop in at Christopher's Cafe at 7:00 AM.