A WORD TO THE WISE: Proverbs 29: 9. "You Can't Fix Stupid----Can You?"

Proverbs 29: 9     If a wise man contends with a foolish man, whether the fool rages or laughs, there is no peace.

Proverbs 29:9.  Comedian Ron White said that you can get laser surgery to correct your vision; you can get plastic surgery to tighten your skin; you can get ear implants to restore your hearing------ “But you can’t fix stupid.”

Now Mr. White isn’t exactly a theologian, but his bit does hit on a recurring idea in the Bible. 

Passages like Proverbs 29: 9; Proverbs 26:4; Ecclesiastes 10: 13 seem to say, “You can’t fix foolish.”

And that’s a hard saying, especially for us preachers, teachers, change-the-world type crusaders.  We’re out there every day and up late into the night trying to find an actual, non-rhetorical answer to the question: How do you help somebody who doesn’t want to be helped?

People keep telling us that the answer is: You can’t.

But we just keep asking the question anyway.

And then we come to what Jesus said: Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces. (Matthew 7: 6)

We want to teach.  They don’t want to learn.  We can’t both have what we want, so we argue. We rage.  They rage.  Or, we argue at them, and they laugh at us for arguing with ourselves.

What’s ironic is that after all the trying to teach, all the casting of pearls, all the begging the boy to listen, the person who’s most frustrated is the wise would-be teacher who has the knowledge and therefore, supposedly, the power.

(P.S.  Knowledge and power don’t always = PEACE)

You can tell people what they need to learn.  You can show people the solution to their problems.   You can explain, illustrate, and demonstrate by living example the way to better, the truth about progressing, and the life that pleases God.   But, if they don’t want to learn, then they won’t be taught.      

Told.  But not taught.

You/ I/ We can’t fix foolish.

It’s impossible.

Which brings us back to God.

And those who heard it said, “Who then can be saved?”  But Jesus said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” (Luke 18: 26, 27)

The Biblical principles are:  (1) You can’t fix foolish; and (2) With God no problem is unfixable.

Therefore, the solution is to bring the fools to God, and to bring God to bear on the foolishness. 

When the right intellectual, social, financial, political, and personal resources don’t solve the problem, it means that the main problem isn’t  intellectual, social, financial, or political.  The primary problem is SPIRITUAL. 

When the proven programs and policies aren’t making a dent in the dilemma, then you don’t simply have a troubled community, you have a SPIRITUAL stronghold. 

Now, it’s laziness and sin for the church to neglect physical needs under the supposedly Christian slogan of “Just Give ‘Em the Gospel.” (James 2: 15-17; James 4: 17)

But it’s also foolish for the church to forget that our greatest resource, our final and first line of defense and plan of attack is the invisible power of PRAYER. 

Then Jesus spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart  (Luke 18:1).

When they’re like pit bulls attacking you for the holiness you represent, PRAY because God can transform a dog into an example of miraculous faith (Matthew 15: 26-28)

When you’ve exhausted your most valuable resources but they keep turning on you and wallowing in their old mess, PRAY because God can transform an unclean life into a clean one.  

What God has cleansed you must not call unclean (Acts 11: 9).

You can’t fix foolish.  

God can.

---Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

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