Types

How many types of people are in this world?

How did you count? By country of origin? By race? By ethnicity? By personality?

Four. There are four types of people in the world. Period. Done. Said. Amen.

We humans revel in our individuality…as we should. We are individuals because our specific combination of traits, skills, strengths, and weaknesses make us unique. There is an array of uses to which we can put our skills. Certain traits can contribute to the level of success in our endeavors. Our strengths and weaknesses can serve as filters on the plethora of choices before us. Yet, these things have little, if anything, to do with what type of person we are or become.

Our heritage—our race, ethnicity, and country of origin—is out of our control. We don’t choose our parents, where we grow up, or the color of our skin. There can be no doubt that these, and a myriad of other things that are out of our control, have direct bearing on the choices we can control. One’s ancestry too easily morphs into excellent pretexts, excuses, and justifications for just about any action, any ‘thing’. All of us can find injustice and glory in our personal and family histories. On a person-to-person level, most of us, have been both oppressor and oppressed at some time, somewhere along the line−bullies are a fact of life. Bullies present an aspect of human nature we find so very unattractive in others, yet are so blind to in our own mirrors. Our person-type is much more entrenched in our decision making and the source of our blind spots.

Personality changes too much to define the type of person one is. Over time and through experience, we change the presentation of ourselves to the world-at-large. So much of who we are gets caught up in who we want others to think we are. Like our heritage, the presentation of who we can be is too easily shaded one way or another. Personality is not rooted deeply enough for beings with our capability to think and reason to define a person-type.

It is no accident that we are individuals. We humans need each other. The surgeon needs the plumber. The janitor calls for the artist. The preacher and the tax collector rely on you. It takes a village…to survive! (Rare are those who thrive without the company of others.) We need each other to be all those things we are not. Thus, there is purpose for every single one of us, a reason for our existence.

How is it possible to define 5.4 billion adults as four−four!−types? The Bible does it, defining four person-types. God’s Word does not contain a lot of physical descriptors. Character descriptors like courageous, stealthy, obstinate, or meek are usually derived by an individual’s attitude towards the Almighty. What demarcates which person-type one becomes is one’s attitude toward the Almighty. Do you choose your purpose in life or know your purpose because God created you, designing within you His purpose for your life.

Meet the Naïve and the Fool

Do you know the difference between dumb and stupid? These blunt terms are considered to be worse than the foul language that we hear everywhere from the supermarket to the halls of Congress. This isn’t about calling people names; this is about discernment—knowing the difference between two things that can often appear strikingly similar. Here, we are discussing the definition of dumb that, most often, describes the young—innocent, inexperienced, without direct knowledge of cause and consequences. Stupid, in this case, is well aware of (or should be) what the negative consequences of an action can produce for one’s self; what harm one’s actions can do to others—and does it anyway.

All of us have been naïve and few people truly remain naïve. An important thing to remember about naïve: inexperience and inability does not negate dignity. Innocence is to be cherished and defended. Those that are mentally and emotionally challenged—and thus naïve—require our understanding, our protection, and our patience as they do for themselves what they can do for themselves. Some of us, as we age, will return to a state of naiveté.

Amazingly, we come to know right and wrong. Though what we are taught has a direct effect on our perceptions, it takes coercion and inculcation to skew our innate sense of right and wrong. Those of us who believe in the Bible know that God told  us this would be. Jesus promises us that we will hear and recognize His voice. The Good Shepherd is calling us to follow Him.

The majority of us have played the fool. Too many of us play the fool all of our lives. Yet, so often it is the foolish things we do that offer us opportunities to grow and change, causing us to understand—and develop the concern for—the ripple effects of our actions. For others, the foolish things that they do cause them to double down, figuring out how to avoid consequences, never developing concern for the consequences on others. It is the fool who “says in his heart that there is no God” so that he may indulge himself, ignoring his own knowledge and evidence to the contrary and to disregard the Father, Himself.

Don’t succumb to the temptation to simply correlate these person-types to the maturing process. That’s much too shallow for beings that are as unique as we are. We are fools; we are scoffers after we mature. If these person-types merely reflected the maturing process, wisdom would abound in the world. The Truth is that wisdom has always been in short supply.

Meet the Scoffer and the Wise

The scoffer is a fool on steroids with full-blown ‘roid rage. The scoffer’s mind and heart are quite well aware of God—and that awareness is central to the scoffer’s rage. The scoffer acts with an “arrogant pride” to cancel the Almighty. The scoffer wants to displace God from his/her reality and erase the Father from everyone else’s existence. If possible, the scoffer would remake and strengthen the veil hiding God’s presence from His children for good.

The scoffer feasts on deception.

The scoffer uses a fool and abuses the naïve.

The scoffer may accumulate heaps of knowledge, yet wisdom remains absent.

Meet the Wise

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Truth, righteousness, mercy, and redemption are found in the Almighty. These ingredients of understanding and insight are found nowhere else. We humans fool ourselves, forgetting that God has poured these  out on and into all of us.

Being wise requires meekness—meekness as defined by the persons of Christ Jesus and Moses. Neither Jesus nor Moses could be considered milquetoasts. They both had backbones, standing firm for righteousness, mercy, Truth, and our redemption. They both knew Yahweh.

Isn’t it interesting that God granted Solomon wisdom and knowledge? Accumulated knowledge is an asset of the wise but not what makes them wise. Wisdom enables one to weave understanding from an abundance of facts. Wisdom uses insight to extrapolate—the wise detest unintended consequences.

Words, words, and more words do not make a person wise. Too many words  and misbehavior abounds. Deception so often wears a cloak of words. No wisdom is imparted in confusion. Speaking plainly is essential to wisdom—gaining it and imparting it.

Being wise is being transparent, to use the vernacular of the day. “Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice.” Wisdom does not, nor need to, hide. Wisdom can be fearless like Jesus and Moses because wisdom speaks in righteousness and Truth.

Being wise requires listening. It is not surprising that Wisdom is on her own in the street and in the market. Listening is harder than it sounds, best done so that one can be heard.

Being wise requires questioning. There is a delicate balance here. Taking someone at their word is a sign of trust. Blindly trusting has been the downfall of many, many, good people.

Us

Most of us journey through life: We blossom. We get stuck. We move on and fall back. We follow our hearts and our hearts are fickle. One day we do something foolish; a couple of days later we make a thoughtful and astute decision; next week, we mock playing by the rules. Sometimes we pursue the Truth that brings peace, seeks justice for all, honors integrity and honesty. Sometimes, we pursue ease, prestige, and wealth at the expense of anything or anyone that would interfere with achieving our desires.

One might think that most of us are fools. Truth be told, that’s probably accurate: our faith is not perfect and we are sinners. We don’t like it−and therein is a blessing. The Lord is quite willing to share His goodness and truth. All we need to do is ask Him for Wisdom and Understanding. (Reading His Word will quicken the results of His gift.)

We fools, and the naïve among us, should ask a lot of questions. It’s kind of a trust but verify thing. People who have not earned our trust, earn it when we verify the truth of their words and their actions corroborate the things they say. Let your prayer be “Really, Lord?” Just because somebody writes it in a blog or a teacher says it or a preacher thunders it doesn’t make it true. The Bereans did not take St. Paul at his word−they examined the Scriptures for verification.

Speaking of St. Paul, Saul of Tarsus was a scoffer. He looked for ways to take out the believers in Jesus Christ. Not many scoffers will receive the road to Damascus treatment that changed Saul to Paul. Yet, God loves all His children regardless of their feelings towards Him. Scoffers will have their opportunities to turn back to their Savior. Our prayers could help immensely.

So we, believer and seeker, pray and verify what we think we know—we grow wise—we put on the mind of Christ.

Questions?