A fool’s mouth lashes out with pride, but the lips of the wise protect them. – Proverbs 14:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 7, 2013): Proverbs 14

I love to play poker. Part of it is just the strategy of the game. And I think I am a fairly patient player. But every once in a while I get involved in a hand that I know I really have no business playing. Sometimes I have won the hand - often by bluffing and blustering my way through it. But more often I have to admit to myself that I made a mistake and simply lay my cards down. In Poker and in life, there comes a time when then bluffing has to end – and your cards have to be laid on the table.

When I first started to do weddings and funerals, one of the best pieces of advice that was given to me was to simply be confidant in what I was doing. If it was wrong, no one was likely to know. It was good advice (maybe better advice for funerals – too many people seem to have their own often wrong opinions on how to conduct a wedding), but the time comes when the pretending has to end and we have to know what it is that we need to do next.

Some of the biggest arguments I have seen are, at the core, built around someone who is bluffing (and sometimes it is around two people that are bluffing.) And the fights always continue until someone finally has to lay down their cards. And often that is not a pretty moment. When two people are bluffing, often the blustering can go on for a long period of time. But when we bluff about something and then run into the real thing, then the bluffing quickly comes to an end – often with one party realizing that they have played the fool. Often we bluff in order to protect our own ego’s and establish ourselves as a somebody. But the actual result is often the reverse. Pride – and especially a false pride – becomes a lightening rod that often invites our own destruction.

A fool is often revealed by what he says – and usually after we get caught bluffing about something. A wise person is often revealed by what they refuse to let pass through their lips. They seldom pretend a knowledge that they do not possess. Personally, I hate even laying my cards down in Poker game, let along having to do the same thing in life knowing that I do not have the cards that I led you to believe that I had.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Proverbs 15