A WORD FOR TODAY, June 9, 2025
Peggy Hoppes
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Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, June 9, 2025
“I have also seen wisdom under the sun in this way, and it seemed great to me. There was a little city, and few men within it; and a great king came against it, besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it. Now a poor wise man was found in it, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man. Then I said, ‘Wisdom is better than strength.’ Nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.” Ecclesiastes 9:13-16, WEB
I once had a conversation with a young man who told me he wanted to visit Las Vegas, but he was not yet old enough to gamble. He admitted to me that he played online poker games and said he did very well. I warned him about the dangers of gambling: that you win just enough to make you think you are a brilliant player but then your luck runs out and you begin to lose. The temptation is to keep going anyway, thinking that your brilliance will overcome your bad luck and you will win again like you did in the beginning. All too many people have gotten caught up in this vicious circle and they have suffered for it. It is so easy for us to experience and succeed at something once and think that it means we have a gift.
I had another conversation with a young woman who told me about an incredible experience she had with the Holy Spirit. I understood her enthusiasm because I had a similar experience. She, however, was immediately convinced that she was a prophet and that everything she said should be accepted as God given. She wrote sermons. She corrected and rebuked others. She spoke “words” that she expected to be believed and embraced, but many of those “words” were filled with error. They did not line up to the scriptures and were dangerous to the spiritual health of those who followed her teachings.
In both these stories, these young folk listened to the wisdom I offered and accepted it as good advice, at least during our conversation. I don’t know what happened to the young man. The self-proclaimed prophet came back to me several times seeking my advice because she thought I was a prophet. One day she shared some of her writing, hoping I would encourage her work. It didn’t take me long to realize she wasn’t interested in honesty; she didn’t want my correction. Though she praised my wisdom, she believed that she gifted and rejected what I had to say when I pointed out her errors. All she wanted was for me to tell her she was the brilliant prophet she thought she was, responding with insults, disregarding me as a person worth listening to.
Wisdom is quickly forgotten.
These stories happened many years ago and I did not know then, or now, what happened with these two young people. I shared my experience and knowledge with them in the hope that they would listen and walk a better path, making the right decisions in due time. The irony of my relationship with the young “prophet” is that she pursued our relationship because she thought I was a prophet, too. When I didn’t say what she wanted to hear, she told me I wasn't a prophet, an office I never claimed for myself.
Unfortunately, I don’t think the young man will take my thoughts to the table with him. My experience with gambling has always been penny ante, trivial when compared to the numbers he had been dealing with online. The young woman stopped listening because I became like a “poor man” whose wisdom was not worth remembering. It is my hope that she eventually heard God’s wisdom, relying on His truths in whatever ministry she was called to do. Human wisdom, even mine, is fleeting, but God’s is eternal. May we all listen to Him and hear the truth so that we’ll keep on a good and right path to His glory.
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