Recidivism is the rate at which a criminal offender returns to prison. One study found that within five years of release, 77% of released prisoners were rearrested. I recently had a conversation with a corrections officer who told me a similar statistic. He estimated the recidivism rate at the place he worked was 90%! The annual cost of incarcerating a prisoner in Utah is nearly $30,000. So, this is a big deal. This corrections officer said that the sad joke as the released prisoners left, was that they would see them again!
Now, it says in Proverbs 27:22, “Crush a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, yet his folly will not depart from him.” Do you know what a mortar and pestle is? It’s a small bowl and a blunt, club-shaped object. You would put the substance you wanted to grind into the mortar and crush and grind it with the pestle. This verse in Proverbs teaches you that you can’t remove a fool’s foolishness. You can grind and crush grain into powder and remove the various components. But, you can’t remove a fool’s foolishness. One author said, “You can separate the wheat from the chaff, but folly is too much a part of a fool to take it from him.”
Obviously, as Christians, we believe that God’s grace is powerful enough to save and transform anybody. But, Proverbs repeats this theme over and over again. The fool is intractable or unteachable. A wise man or woman is teachable. In your own life, are you teachable?
Proverbs repeatedly tells us you can teach a wise person. But, with a fool, you are just wasting your breath. Would your family call you teachable? Does your spouse? Do your co-workers or people at church consider you humble and open to correction? Some things to think about.
Trying to learn from my mistakes,
Josh
Posted in A Word from the Pastor