Good Advice, Bad Timing

What worked for them might not work for you.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Then again, out of sight, out of mind. Many hands make light work, though too many cooks spoil the broth.

Folk wisdom has an answer for everything, including the opposite of everything. Each saying is true somewhere. The trick is figuring out which one your situation actually calls for.

We see this in Scripture. Proverbs 26:4 says, “Do not answer fools according to their folly.” The very next verse says, “Answer fools according to their folly.”

While somewhat jarring to read, those two verses were put side by side on purpose. If you answer the fool, you might sink to his level. If you keep quiet, the nonsense stands unchallenged. The Bible declines to make the call for you ahead of time.

Advice grows out of someone else’s particular circumstances. (That includes advice coming from a random Jesuit on Substack!) It may have worked for that person, but it may not work for you.

I’ve started thinking of advice as prescription medication, rather than something you grab off a shelf that works for almost everyone. Great medicine can be terrible medicine if it ends up in the wrong patient.

So gather wisdom wherever you find it (including Substack). The harder task, the one worth praying over, is knowing which wisdom this particular moment is asking for.