Professing to be wise

"Professing to be wise, they became fools" Romans 1:22

Have you ever heard the saying "It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt."? (I think Mark Twain said this one) Unfortunately, I think we all have this fault now & then. Some may call it verbal diarhea, word vomit, foot-in-mouth etc. But sometimes we just say things that really make us look STUPID!

And sometimes we just can't help it. Sort of like embellishing the truth, or telling a great tale. When the response is so good, why can't we stop there? Some of you can, sometimes, I can't. And so I keep talking, maybe make up a part or two to make it more interesting. Hey, perhaps its my creative side. It would have been better if it happened that way... or something like that. But if you exaggerate too much, often you end up getting caught in your 'embellished truth' and the story listener may think 'foul'.

But how much worse is it when Christians appear stupid. Some of us can go on & on, spouting how great & godly we think we are. Verbalizing our wisdom & holier-than-thou perfection but the careful (and sometimes not so careful) observer can see right through us. Wisdom in one's own eyes is just that - you only appear wise to yourself but the big giant FOOL to everyone else who is seeing you say one thing and do another. Or if you aren't following through with what you say, you are also ruining precious words. Words that should be filled with love and TRUTH, not embellished with honey but stinking of mold! So if we sugar coat something to make it smell sweet, but the actions are foul, it is the rotteness that the world will see and we will be fools!

Speak truth! Follow through! Don't embellish. Love only!