Stupid Means Someone Else –, Not Me
Ed, my old neighbor in Saskatchewan, has a few words that he uses frequently. He uses the word stupid to describe people, places, and things. I have told him that telling people they are stupid can put a hole in their self-esteem. He reminded me that he hadn’t yet called me stupid to my face, but it could happen. He claims that I’m forgetting more names of people, places, and things and that I could be called stupid if I don’t smarten up. I explained forgetting might not be a matter of stupidity but being wise enough not to remember what doesn’t matter anyway.
The dictionary explains stupid as having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense. I prefer to see stupidity as a matter of limit, like a blind man trying to see himself in a mirror. If the blind man gained his sight, he could see himself in the mirror because he is no longer without sight. Stupidity need not be permanent. We all suffer from it at times. Sometimes it is said there are no stupid questions. Who is intelligent in every circumstance of life? No one except God. How unsearchable are His judgments and his paths beyond tracing out! He alone has the words of eternal life.
The rapper Eminem has reportedly said, “I’m stupid, I’m ugly, I’m dumb, I smell. Did I mention stupid?” What we say about ourselves is one thing, but to call another person stupid, sets a verdict of who is superior and who is inferior. No one likes to be treated like they are dumb. Ken Ebright shared that when he was a kid, he had learning difficulties. The worst part for him was that other kids knew it and called him stupid. Calling others dumb may be about the most stupid thing a person can do in this life.
How easily we forget that we are not so smart and wise when it comes to sin. Sin makes us act stupidly and leaves us in a stupor of brainlessness and mindlessness. How easily we are in a daze of self-love, lovers of money, proud, boastful, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, loveless, unforgiving, slanderous, treacherous, rash, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. We refuse to entirely flee evil desires to pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with a pure heart.
If we call ourselves Christians, we must turn from wickedness to be useful to God, our Master. We live in a time of scoffers and doubters. There is endless mocking chatter about God so that many are turning from the word of God, rejecting it as the truth to be handled in the example of Christ. They forget that we are to be God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. God’s word builds us on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
The world is full of conceit, with the labeling of others as stupid, but God calls his people to do good to all people. We are to live in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. We forgive just as Christ God forgave us our stupid sins.
