Don’t be dumb

There is a difference between dumb and ignorant. Unfortunately, I have experience with both. To illustrate I need to reach back into the far recesses of ancient history… yesterday.

Yesterday I spent about 15 minutes looking for my car keys. I finally found them when I looked under some furniture in the living room. No, they weren’t under there. But, to lift the chair I had to clear my hands, so, before moving the chair I had to set down the… keys… why yes, I do have two graduate degrees. Why do you ask?

Ignorance is a lack of knowledge. When you are ignorant, you can’t even be expected to make a good choice because you don’t have the resources for it.

Dumb is having the right information and resources, and still choosing wrong.

Again, ignorance is bad choices because you didn’t have an option. Dumb is a bad choice that was your option… and that’s just… dumb.

I had a high school football coach that loved to say, Continue reading “Don’t be dumb”

Don’t make the same mistake twice

Over the last few weeks I have been studying the book of Hebrews with some awesome guys.

I’ll be honest, it’s a tough book. It’s tough enough that most scholars aren’t even really sure who wrote it, but they are confident that it lines up with Scripture and is a valuable part of our Bible.

As the name implies, it was written to Hebrews, so even though it’s a New Testament book it reflects back on much of what happened in the Hebrew nation of the Old Testament. In the first quarter of the book, there is a warning that basically goes like this: “Do not make the same mistakes you saw those who came before you make.” (Hebrews 3:16-4:2)

Pretty easy advice, eh?

Not so much.

  • Have you ever seen somebody run into a car because they were watching a wreck on the other side of the road?
  • Have you ever seen someone fail a test because they cheated off someone dumber than they were?
  • Have you ever told your children not to do something and explained a specific consequence, only to walk out of the room and have them do exactly what you told them not to do?

We humans are difficult that way. Kind of slow, a little rebellious and continually irritating. (Resist the urge to put these labels on someone else… if you’re human, this applies to us all)

Continue reading “Don’t make the same mistake twice”