Oklahoma’s “favorite son” Will Rogers made some very interesting remarks in his lifetime. The President of the Downtown Rotary Club, Clayton Taylor, always ends the meeting with a thought for the day. This last Tuesday, he closed with Will Rogers most famous line – “I never met a man I didn’t like.” You’ll remember several years ago that phrase spurned a host of bumper stickers with phrases like “Will Rogers never met Saddam Hussein, etc.” Though he died with pilot Wiley Post on August 15, 1935 his words live on today. (It’s been noted, OKC is the only city that has two airports dedicated to aviators who died tragically in an airplane accident!)

Here are a few more of Will Rogers’s sayings just for fun: “Never slap a man whose chewing tobacco… Never kick a cow chip on a hot day… There are two theories to arguing with a woman-neither works... Always drink upstream from the herd… Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment… letting a cat out of the bag is a whole lot easier’ n puttin’ it back.”

Long before Will, King Solomon, the wisest man in the world at the time, wrote down an entire book of wisdom for all of us who would follow. It’s found in the Book of Proverbs. As you know from worship; I challenged us to read a chapter a day during this month. Thirty-one chapters in thirty-one days. Are you feeling wiser? You surely should!

I’m enjoying reading through this great book again. I also enjoy reading God’s Word from The Message Bible on occasion. Today’s reading for Proverbs 14:24 says, “The wise accumulate wisdom.” If you’re like me your office and your home and maybe your car accumulate a lot of things over time. Unfortunately a lot of it is not wisdom; more often it’s papers, mail, and old French fries. Here’s what Eugene Peterson has to say about wisdom in his book Where Your Treasure Is: “The opposite of foolish in the Scripture is wise. Wise refers to skill in living. It does not mean, primarily, the person who knows the right answers to things, but one who has developed the right responses (relationships) to persons, to God. The wise understand how the world works. They know about patience (there’s last Sunday’s word again!) and love, listening and grace, adoration and beauty; they know that other people are awesome creatures to be respected and befriended, especially the ones that I cannot get anything out of… they know that God is an ever-present center… an all-encompassing love.”

I want to be wise like that. Understanding God is an ever-present help in times of trouble and an incredibly Loving Father. After all, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Proverbs 1:7. True wisdom is found in God and God alone.

Blessings to you and yours!

See you Sunday – This week’s message is “The Devil Made Me Do It!”

Yours in Christ’s Love,
Mark