Daily Jewel

By Pastor Carnell, McAlester,

“It Does Not Pay to Be a Fool”

“Deceit causes trouble, and foolish talk will bring you to ruin.” – Proverbs 10:10 (Contemporary English Version)

A number of the past messages have been along these lines of showing care when using “words.” If this seems like overkill I would point out the fact that if there is anything we have learned throughout the centuries is that we have not learned anything! The human race continues to march down the same reckless path producing the same disastrous results—RUIN.
The word “fool” conjures up a number of images and/or perceptions. One is that of a “jester.” A jester, joker, fool, wit-cracker, or prankster was a person employed to tell jokes and provide general entertainment, typically for a European monarch or courtier. Jesters are often depicted to have typically worn brightly colored clothes and eccentric hats in what is referred to as a motley pattern. They were floppy with three points, each of which had a jingle bell at the end. The three points of the hat represent donkey's ears and nose and tail. Other things distinctive about the jester were his laughter and his mock scepter, known as a "bauble" or marotte. Many courts throughout English royal history employed entertainers and most had professional fools, sometimes called licensed fools. Entertainment included music, juggling, clowning, and the telling of riddles. Interesting history lesson…is it not?
One thing not noted here but can be found in other sources—if a jester failed to meet the king’s pleasure his position was terminated—literally. Maybe that is where we get the idiom, “died laughing.”
If the definition of fool is one who mocks, then it would stand to reason that “foolish talk” would fall along the same line. So what might this entail?
We have, in our society individuals known as “comedians.” I would call this our modern equivalent of the fool. Men and women who are paid thousands, if not millions of dollars to act, speak, and work in ways that are intended solely to entertain us and make us laugh. Many of them use crude, immoral, profane, and obscene methods in their “routines.” These individuals mock God, the King, because their methods violate everything He stands for.
Recently, a Hollywood icon passed away. His name was Andy Griffith. Many of us grew up watching the Andy Griffith Show and the subsequent spin-offs, Mayberry R.F.D. and Gomer Pyle, USMC. These were comedy shows. They did more than make us laugh, they entertained us with wholesome scenarios and situations. Never did they insult our intelligence, values or morals with jokes laced with sexual innuendos, put downs or sight gags filled with nudity or bodily pain? The closest comedy every got to anything like that was the Three Stooges—tame compared with what exists today.
After his death I discovered that before going into acting he was studying to be a minister in the Moravian Church. But he felt another call—one that would combine two of his greatest passions, music and story-telling. Those two loves along with his incredible talent and sense of humor won him a role as a county sheriff (who was also a justice of the peace and the editor of the local newspaper) in an episode of Make Room for Daddy, starring Danny Thomas. This episode, in which Thomas' character is stopped for speeding in a little town, served as a pilot for The Andy Griffith Show. Don’t you wish more shows had individuals like Andy Griffith who are able to combine talent and good taste?
Our modern “fools” may be making a lot of money—but are they creating an atmosphere of real joy, hope, peace, and love?