The Bible called me stupid
Jan. 19 2007
The Bible called me stupid the other day. Seriously.
Proverbs 12:1 says, “He who hates correction is stupid.” That’s pretty straightforward. (That’s what I love about the Bible. It hits us where we live.)
See, I live in this world where I’m perfect. I don’t do anything wrong. I am never in need of any correction. But then some mean person comes across my path, enters my little dream world and brings me a thought about how I can change. And my perfect little world blows up. This happened to me just a few weeks ago.
I was meeting the singles ministry pastors at my church and we were going through a message that a friend of mine was about to give. We gave him some feedback that would improve the message to serve the people we love. I left the meeting thinking I did a great job leading the time. I thought it was basically perfect and probably was on the top ten list of best lead meetings....ever.
But then one of the other pastors called me and told me how I might have lead the meeting better. He said it seemed that I was impatient with the guy we were helping—as if I was trying to end the meeting more than trying to help him with his message.
Pop.
Did you hear that? That was my world. A bit of truth just entered my world of lies.
Reality hurts doesn’t it? My friend was right. I was trying to get home to see my family. It was a good desire but I quickly turned it into a demand. I was getting angry and impatient that the meeting was taking too long.
That phone conversation wasn’t pleasant. There were serious tension in my heart because the world that my pride created was getting tested.
Correction does that. Correction is a bit of truth shared that brings reality to our unreality. I left the meeting thinking it went perfect. Not true. It actually needed a lot of help and my friend wanted to bring some help. He came in with his bit of truth and shared it. At that moment I had a choice: I could be stupid and hate correction, or I could be wise and learn.
(Oh and by the way for those that may be wondering what in the world I mean by “correction,” it’s when someone shares a thought or question related to statement, action, or attitude was potentially sinful, unhelpful or unwise.)
I’ll never forget something that another pastor told me. I was talking to him about how much I don’t like being corrected and he said, “Eric you don’t hate correction.”
I immediately thought, “Hello! Yes I do!”
It’s hard to hear people tell me what I’m doing wrong.
But then he asked me a great question. “Eric do you equate loving correction with correction being easy to receive?”
I thought, “Well isn’t that the deal? If you are humble and love correction then it should be easy to receive and should be something you look forward to, right? “
That day I learned the answer wasn’t what I thought it was.
God wants us to love the process of correction as a gift from him. God cares enough about us to bring people who love us into our lives to share truth with us. And God wants us to enjoy the fruit of correction: the wisdom that comes from it.
That conversation with my friend was so helpful. I thought about all the times people loved me enough to share a thought with me and saw how God used those moments to change and alter my course of life. As I looked back I was amazed at how many times I have been corrected and how God has really shaped me through correction.
Wow. Correction is awesome. Yes, it’s hard in the moment because nobody likes being told they are wrong (at least I don’t) but I am so glad people love me enough to help me grow.
So what about being stupid? Here is where we can be stupid: Stupidity comes in when somebody corrects us but we refuse to listen to or apply it. We leave the conversation and don’t act on the wisdom that God just gave through what was shared by another person. We either forget it, we reject it (maybe not verbally or outwardly, but internally...) or in our laziness and pride we just don’t want to change. Well guess what? If we do this then the Bible tells us that we are stupid because we like our world of unreality better than living in truth.
So here is one final thought: if you disagree with the correction that somebody brings, be honest and humbly share with the person that you don’t see what they are talking about. But don’t stop there, start asking questions. Don’t just say you disagree and then end the conversation. Tell them you’re having trouble seeing what they saw. Then ask them to tell you specifically what they saw and why it was concerning. Ask lots of questions.
Correction isn’t a chore; it’s how God helps readjust our perception of reality, one bit of truth at a time.