Let's start by looking at Proverbs 1:7:
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction."

Proverbs uses different words for fool that range from “simple” to “mocker.” It's really important for us to look at foolishness and the different shades of it because we all have to admit that there are pockets of foolishness in our own heart that we haven't even begun to deal with. To say that one is not a fool is actually foolish. And to admit that we're a fool is when we are on the path of wisdom. 

Now what we're experiencing in recent days is a good test for us to see the foolishness inside of us. Isolation and solitude have this effect on us. They serve as a gracious mirror so we can see what comes leaking out of our heart. What silence and solitude tend to do is expose our own heart and its frustration, irritability, and despair. Those are the kinds of things that come out of us. And it's there that God can begin to do his work in you. 

Let's look at the second word for fool; it's the Hebrew word eveel. Eveel is the fool in Proverbs that doesn't want instruction or wisdom. This kind of fool is bound up in themselves. They are prideful fools. They don't want to listen to other people. They think their opinion is the most important. The deep irony is that as much talking as they do, they are really unwilling to listen to other people and what they have to say. 

We see this kind of fool in Proverbs 10:21:
"The lips of the righteous feed many, 
but fools die for a lack of sense."

 And then in Proverbs 12:15:
"The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, 
but a wise man listens to advice."

In Mere Christianity C. S. Lewis wrote, “Pride is spiritual cancer. It eats at the very possibility of love, contentment, or common sense.” When fools talk with their pride, they self protect their own heart. If their will is crossed, they feel like they will lose their significance or self importance. Charles Taylor, the modern philosopher, called these people “the buffered self” that have to protect themselves. 

So let me ask you some self-evaluative questions: 

• Are you a relatively anonymous follower of Jesus - who really knows you and the stuff that comes flying out of your heart? 

• Where is it that you find that your opinions matter and you're not willing to listen to anyone else? 

• Now that you've been in close confines for awhile, where have you seen this kind of sin leak out of your heart? Have you allowed other people to confront you on that? 

Do you have a daily time of devotion to the Lord, where you come before him because only he has the words of eternal life? Do you let his Word cross your will because you know that your path is a foolish one without him? His path is the wise path. He created you, knows what lies in the depths of your life, and wants you to live in a way where you actually do well in life.

The gospel is the only way that we can begin to shed some of this foolishness in our heart and walk in this eternal kind of life that God has given to us. Our sin perpetually leaks out of us, and yet God loves us so deeply that we can trust him to begin to change us and transform us so that we walk on this correct path. 

Prayer for Today
Father, the sin in us is so pervasive and always leaking out of us. Isolation, silence, and solitude only magnify it more. Lord, let us bring our sin before you to say that this was covered at the cross and dealt with in full. Your verdict over us is one of love. We pray that we would walk in this now in Jesus name, amen.