Those of you who know me well, know that I love music. But it is kind of sad lately. For about the last two months I have been listening to one or two albums at most. Since purchasing the Avett Brother’s I and Love and You and Live Volume 3, I really haven’t listened to much else. The reason I intro with this is because of one of the lyrics that caught me off guard the other day. The chorus to the song Ten Thousand Words is as follows: “Ain’t it like most people? I’m no different, We love to talk on things we don’t know about.” The underlying truth in that line is what gets me…especially as someone who earns his living primarily talking.

I think this is something where we need to safeguard ourselves. Proverbs 15:2 says, “The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly.” I don’t like to often think of myself as a fool, although I think I have been called worse, but I am not sure that I always speak from a completely informed platform. I try to pride myself on being culturally relevant and savvy; I study scripture and commentaries for Biblical insight; and I am a social scientist regarding the lives of my students and the environment in which they live…but there are still limitations to what I am able to collect. I am not able to walk in the shoes of everyone I minister too and therefore have to be careful when trying to speak truth into their lives.

What’s sad is when people have no consideration for the others’ beliefs or convictions. We attempt to speak truth/judgment upon without fully knowing their story. I believe as Christians that we have a message which is of dire importance that we must share with people, but if we don’t know our message well, if we don’t know our audience, if we have no consideration for who they are and where they come from…then we might as well be gushing folly.

I know I fall into the category of being like most people who don’t know what they are talking about…but I want to know.