top of page
Writer's pictureRev. Rob Jones
Sep 1511 min read

Bless Your Pea Pickin' Heart

September 15, 2024

Proverbs 1:20-33

Wisdom cries out in the street; in the squares, she raises her voice. 21 At the busiest corner, she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates, she speaks: 22 “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing, and fools hate knowledge? 23 Give heed to my reproof; I will pour out my thoughts to you; I will make my words known to you. 24 Because I have called and you refused, have stretched out my hand and no one heeded 25 and because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, 26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when panic strikes you, 27 when panic strikes you like a storm, and your calamity comes like a whirlwind when distress and anguish come upon you. 28 Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me. 29 Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, 30 would have none of my counsel, and despised all my reproof, 31 therefore, they shall eat the fruit of their way and be sated with their own devices. 32 For waywardness kills the simple, and the complacency of fools destroys them; 33 but those who listen to me will be secure and will live at ease, without dread of disaster.”

James 3:1-12

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 2 For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. 3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. 4 Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5 So also, the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell. 7 For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, 8 but no one can tame the tongue-a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it, we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt-water yield fresh.


As a young man, I worked in a retail shop as a manager. Now, as far as experience goes, I was the least experienced person in the building. The floor employees knew the business way better than I did at the time, but they indulged the higher-ups and put up with me. One day, a store manager in the neighboring town needed to take time off and needed another manager to open and close, while my store had four people on the management staff. I drew the short straw and made the trip to open and close the neighboring store.


Working at this other store was Miss Betty, the grandmother of my childhood best friend, and she knew me well. I went, opened the store, and went about doing managerial things. Over the day’s course, I helped with returns and talked to customers, making sure everyone was having a pleasant experience. Then, a situation came up that needed a manager’s approval in Miss Betty’s department. I did not know the exact protocol for this problem, but Miss Betty did. After the customer left, I explained that I was new and hadn’t finished all the training I was promised. I will never forget what she said to me because it was both comforting and cutting at the same time. She said, “Bless your pea-pickin’ heart, honey; they will never train you for this job!”


In one sentence, Miss Betty made me feel several emotions and come to a realization about my job as a manager. One, I felt comforted by the tone she took; it was just like a grandmother, and I knew she didn’t think I was dumb (after all, I had known her since the 5th grade). Two, I felt so stupid, not because of the situation at that moment but because I realized that my new job as a manager was to babysit the store keys and let the professional salespeople, those little old ladies who had been doing the job for thirty years, do their jobs. She was correct; I never received the type of training I was promised. I was thrown head-first into the deep end of the pool and told to swim. Miss Betty was as virtuous with her words as she was with her customers. I learned a lot that day because I learned to keep my mouth shut and listen to those who know more than me.


Proverbs says, “Wisdom cries out in the street; in the squares she raises her voice. At the busiest corner, she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates, she speaks…” Wisdom speaks to us everywhere, but the world shouts over her. Wisdom is telling us of God’s plan, but we are too simple to understand, unwilling to yield to the experience of those who come before, who have discerned through the Spirit the path of righteousness. The writer of this proverb understands the calamity the world was in at the time and is still in today. Since I am speaking of grandmothers, I will quote my own; she always said, “The Lord gave you one mouth and two ears, so you can speak less and hear.”

 

The Bible talks a lot about wisdom. Philosophy talks a lot about wisdom. Academics, sociologists, Theologians, and even Atheist-Humanists talk a lot about wisdom. But today, I want to talk about perspective. Wisdom comes from perspective; Merriam-Webster defines perspective as “[the]capacity to view things in their true relations or relative importance.” (Merriam-Webster, 2024) In 1675, famed mathematician, astronomer, alchemist, author, and theologian Issac Newton once wrote about his perspective in a letter to Robert Hooke. He wrote, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." (Newton, 2017) Newton, even with all his notoriety, understood that his learning started where the wisdom of others left off.

 

I didn’t see my actual role as manager until I gained perspective, and along with my newfound perspective came wisdom. I learned to rely on the knowledge of my staff and get out of my own way. Proverbs 1 tells us that when it comes to God’s wisdom, having a worldly perspective is not wise; in fact, it is simple. The Hebrew word is Pthiy (Peth-eé). It means open to the instruction of wisdom or folly, believing every word, naïve, easily enticed or misled, in need of atonement. (Bible Hub/6612.pthiy, 2024) In lay terms, to be simple is to be unaware of the presence of God’s Spirit.

 

What are we to do when wisdom speaks? What do we do when the world’s influence bares down on us? What do you do? How will you behave in the face of unwavering information in today’s 24-hour communication cycle? I do not call it a 24-hour news cycle because most Americans do not look for news anymore; we look for what’s interesting, entertaining, and sensational. Social media posts, snappy, misleading headlines, and echo-chamber gossip influence us. Then, we repeat what we hear as if the source was Walter Cronkite or even God himself. Because we have so many seeking to influence others, our society is ruled by what the writer of Proverbs calls the Simple.

 

God instructs us to heed His reproof because He will make His word known to us. Indeed, God has made His word known to us. Our perspective is set right when we focus on the cross of Christ and shut out the noise of politics, society, and sensational media. When teaching about following the ways of the world, Jesus says in Matthew, “Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.” (Matt. 15:14). We get so focused on ourselves that we forget someone else right beside us is blinded by the noise of the world. People are made simple by the influence of nonsensical information that is designed to evoke a response, designed to make you angry, afraid, and, most importantly, unaware of God’s presence calling out to them.

 

There is a ridiculous story I read about a group of animals in the jungle who decided to have a football game that shows us perspective. The noticeable problem in the game was that no one could tackle the rhinoceros. All the animals on the team were focused on this considerable opponent. You see, once he got a head of steam, he was unstoppable. When the rhinoceros received the opening kickoff, he rambled down the field for a touchdown. The score was seven to nothing immediately.

Somehow, they managed to keep the ball away from him for the remainder of the first quarter. At the beginning of the second quarter, the other team tied the score 7 to 7. The lion tried to warn the zebra on the kickoff not to kick it to the rhinoceros. But the zebra ignored the warning. The rhino caught the ball, and there he was, racing for the touchdown. Suddenly, out of nowhere, he was brought down with a vicious tackle. When the animals all got up out of the pile, it was discovered that a centipede had made the tackle.

 

"That was fantastic!" congratulated the lion. "But where were you on the opening kickoff?"

 

The centipede replied, "I was still putting on my shoes." (Perdue, et al., 2023)

 

We tend to focus on the most significant thing on the field, the shiniest object that can grab our attention, or the thing that infuriates us about something we think is essential at that moment. Sometimes, we feel the need to make our voices heard and add to the noise of the world. It makes us feel good to scream and yell for our cause, just like a fan at a football game. But we never pay attention to the centipede putting on his shoes, do we?

 

James tells his reader that not many of us should become teachers. Because “no one can tame the tongue-a restless evil, full of deadly poison. Yet, everyone can now give an opinion, instruction, or judgment about any subject they see fit with the push of a button on their phone. James says with our tongues, “…we bless the Lord and Father, and [then], we curse those who are made in the likeness of God.” Not all of us are teachers, nor should we be. We lack the tack, the subtleness of character to guide others in the way of the Lord.  We are not trained, yet, by the spirit to be the blessing we are called into becoming. Accepting Christ is the first step of Christianity; the second is allowing the Spirit to work in us.

 

Wisdom speaks to us, but many are not listening; they have not heeded the word God has placed on our hearts. To paraphrase Miss Betty, “Bless our pea-pickin hearts because the world will never train us for this job!” Only the Spirit will grant us the wisdom to be teachers. Only the Spirit will give us the perspective of the Cross. The Spirit will instill the belief that in God’s kingdom, forgiveness and mercy will always outweigh the anger and selfishness of the world. With the guidance of the Spirit, we will understand that those who do not heed the reproof of the Lord will be made simple and will not gain the Lord’s wisdom but suffer the Lord’s judgment. Focus on the Cross, “Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.” (Matt. 15:14)

 

This is not some rant of a small church pastor with a basic working understanding of the Bible. Christ did not come to hold the keys to the store while others did the work, and James understood what the writer of Proverbs was saying. I have been around long enough and studied Theology long enough to know that what the Word of God says has spiritual and real-world consequences. It is time for Christians to stop! It is time for us to refocus our perspective because if we do not, I am afraid we will all be made simple.

 

On December 4, 2016, a shooting incident took place at a pizza shop called Comet Ping Pong in Washington, D.C. A man entered the shop with a rifle, motivated by a false conspiracy theory he found on the internet known as “Pizzagate,” which claimed the restaurant was involved in a pedophile sex ring tied to then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. This conspiracy theory had gained traction following an October 28 announcement from the FBI regarding Clinton's missing emails, with the hashtag “#pizzagate” attached. (Imamura, 2017)

 

Confronted with the noise and the misinformation, this man made a real-world decision to take a gun, enter that business, and shoot it up because of a mythological story. This man claimed to be religious, and he claimed he was protecting children. In reality, he is the father of two who couldn’t detach himself from the internet and served time in prison. From his perspective, he was doing something good until it wasn’t. His viewpoint was distorted by the noise of the world, the noise of the internet. This is what the devil tried to do to Jesus in the wilderness in Matthew chapter 4. The devil not only tempted but tried to confuse Jesus with a worldly perspective, offering Jesus the entire world if he would bow down. But look at the temptation through the lens of the cross; the world was made through Christ. It all belonged to Him already.

 

We haven’t learned our lesson yet, and I’m afraid we still suffer from a lack of wisdom. The viciousness and the evil of tongues that keep us from God also keep us from each other. But wisdom is still calling, and the Good News is this: When we change our perspective and look through the lens of the cross, we can not only see but hear God’s wisdom. In this wisdom, there is a diversity of theological understanding. God meets us where we are. God teaches us, focuses us, and guides us to an understanding of His heavenly kingdom. When we look through the lens of the cross, what we see is not sad but exciting because the cross is empty, our sins are forgiven, and our salvation is assured. Brothers and Sisters, look at the cross and find wisdom; she is calling out to you right now.

 

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. Amen.

 

 

Works Cited

5 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments

bottom of page