"Like snow in summer or rain in harvest, honour is not fitting for a fool" (Proverbs 26v1)

Today Mark & I looked at a section of Proverbs which has a lot to say about the fool. This is how it starts. Honour is not fitting for a fool. Easy to agree, really: but let's digest this one a bit.
We all know that honour is not fitting for a fool. It's instinctive. It is a deeply frustrating thing to watch people's fascination with individuals who have very little to offer. Individuals who have not nurtured their characters, but only polished their faces.

I have watched the nation's fascination with idiots ever since the inception of "Big Brother". What a show that was! Every moment of exposure to it that I suffered convinced me that each season hosted a more foolish set of idiots than the last. And to think it was named after a notional character in a deeply reflective and insightful book...

Following on from that we have had a whole generation of tv shows where we, the public, can vote on how much we like the people parading before us. (WHY would you go on a show like that? Are we so starved of approval?) And our vote is never very satisfactory. The people who emerge from these things as stars could, I think, be pretty accurately described as "fools". And yet we give them air time, chat show time; we give credence to their opinions and think they may have something worthwhile to say at their tender ages and simply because they are physically attractive (and can sing?- maybe).

We recently had a wonderful church weekend away, listening to the teaching of Andrew Raynes, a vicar from Blackburn. Not a flashy guy. But one whose opinions and insights are well worth taking on board and digesting. Likewise another great friend of our church, Jonathan Milton-Thompson.

How interesting that these 2 men should both be vicars in Blackburn- certainly not one of the great hotspots of glory and glamour! They have devoted their lives to teaching true wisdom to people who need it, and you can tell from listening to them.

We should have more magazines about people like that. Maybe I'll start one...