This is the 17th of 25 special reflections based on lessons I learned from my mother. These will run from my birthday on October 27 until her birthday on November 20.
Read
Can a man carry fire next to his chest
and his clothes not be burned?
Or can one walk on hot coals
and his feet not be scorched?
Proverbs 6:27-28
Reflect
When Mom was a little girl, my grandfather joined the U.S. Border Patrol and was stationed in Falfurrias, Texas. She didn’t have a lot of memories about living there, but there was one that definitely stood out.
Mom said that a man with a petting zoo came through town, and he had a variety of different animals in cages. One of them was a squirrel, and it somehow slipped out of its cage and ran up a nearby tree. The man was beside himself because apparently he had trained that squirrel and he didn’t want to lose it.
Mom must have been about five at the time and showed no fear. She offered to climb up the tree and retrieve the man’s pet squirrel, and the man accepted her offer, assuring her that the squirrel was tame and friendly. With that assurance, Mom scrambled up the tree to fetch the squirrel. What happened next was predictable. When she reached the squirrel, trained or not, it did not want to go with her. She emerged from the encounter covered with scratches and bite marks – and a little bit wiser.
The Bible doesn’t have anything to say about playing with squirrels, but it does say something about playing with fire. It poses the questions, “Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned?” and “Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched?” The book of Proverbs is all about wisdom, and it’s clearly not wise to play with fire because we know we’re going to get burned.
There are things in life that we know are not in our best interest. Wisdom is not only knowing the difference between right and wrong but also between wise and foolish actions. Sadly, wisdom is becoming more and more scarce. Just go to YouTube and search for “foolish people,” and you’ll get endless opportunities to watch videos about people doing unwise things. (And many of them videoed themselves to ensure that their foolishness would be immortalized.)
Embrace wisdom. Think about your actions in advance and weigh whether or not they’re worth pursuing. And above all, make sure that none of them are on the level of “playing with fire” or catching a petting zoo squirrel. If what you’re doing has a clear negative outcome – or is likely to show up on an episode of “World’s Dumbest” – reverse course and move in the opposite and wiser direction.
Reflection copyright © 2024 Doug DeBolt.
