Enthusiasm is good!!...maybe...

Good Tuesday to you! I would be less than honest if I didn't admit my happiness about the Texas Rangers' triumph over the New York Yankees last night...because in the world of baseball,there is nothing better than beating the Yankees! On the other hand, baseball fans like myself tend to be a superstitious lot, so I will say nothing more about the subject, and will certainly not make any predictions about the outcome of the Series...might jinx the team!!

When I read Proverbs 19 last evening, I found 5 verses that I particularly liked for one reason or another, but I'm not sure time or space permits me to discuss all 5 of them...I'd like to share them with you, even though I may only comment on one or two of them, because I think all of them are worthy of sharing!

First is verse 2:

"It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way."

I saw a visual image last Friday, I think, of what this verse is trying to depict for us. A good friend and I were going to the Texas State Fair, and had decided to take the DARTRail train, rather than drive to Fair Park and battle with traffic and parking. As we walked up to the platform to wait for our train, I saw a gangly young boy racing as fast as he could run from one end of the platform to the other...it was the kind of thing that makes you do a double-take, because it looked initially like the boy was going somewhere...and wherever he was going, it had to be urgent, because of the way he was running...

Once we arrived at the platform area and got a closer look at the situation, it was obvious that this young guy wasn't going anywhere, but was randomly racing back and forth, dodging in and out of the people gathered there waiting for the train...because...why?? I'm guessing that if there was a reason at all for the running, it was probably ADHD, but whatever it was, you could certainly describe him as being full of "zeal." Highly energized, ready to go...go...go...the gangly teen aptly illustrates what zeal would look like, if we could see it in someone's bodily movements.

So...the writer of the Proverb tells us it is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.

In today's world of motivational speakers and success gurus, there is alot said about enthusiasm and positive attitudes...and, well, zeal. You can change the world with a positive attitude, and with enough enthusiasm....right? Maybe not.

If you think back to the boy running circles on the platform, it's easy to envision the illustration of misdirected energy. Was he going anywhere? No, not really. Did he have a destination that he wanted to reach, or a goal to achieve? No, not really. Mind you, I have nothing against running for it's own sake...particularly where it concerns young and energetic kids, so don't miss the larger point here, which is to illustrate what uninformed enthusiasm looks like...

Jim Rohn says, in order to change our lives, we need both knowledge and enthusiasm...and amazingly enough, his perspective seems to be perfectly aligned with the wisdom of the Proverb. If you're uninformed, uneducated, and ignorant...but enthusiastic...what do you have? Not much, I'd say.

If there is one message that is the constant drumbeat of the Proverbs, here it is:

Get wisdom...and with your wisdom, get understanding.

Because when you have wisdom, and you have understanding...and then add zeal to the equation...well now...then you're really going somewhere!