Post from July 6, 2026

“👟 RSD 1164 ✅ Today’s Verse: “The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left.”—Ecclesiastes 10:2 (6+4=10:1+1=2)

NLT: “A wise person chooses the right road; a fool takes the wrong one.”

Do you know the superstition about spilling salt? No lie: I first learned of it watching “Dumb and Dumber” (highly recommend, btw). It goes like this: when you spill salt, you’re supposed to toss some over your left shoulder (the guy in the movie tosses the entire shaker…don’t do that). You know how (I usually see it in cartoons) a character in a show will be wrestling with a decision and the little angel will pop up on the right shoulder and the little devil will pop up on the left? That’s why the salt goes over the left shoulder. Now, that connotation isn’t from Biblical times, although it is pretty old, and it helps to give us a point of reference for today. One of my favorite verses talks about this decision making, only it’s not so much conscience as it is calling: “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it’” — Isaiah 30:21. A lot of right and left talk today, and, no: it’s not the red and blue kind. By the way, that sort of right/left thing didn’t come about until the 1700s, and the red/blue didn’t become much of a thing in the US until the late 90s (was cemented in the 2000 election)—also, it’s worth it to note that red/blue associations are opposite of ours in many countries. So, don’t let political connotations spoil today’s reflection for you—today’s verse is only about how we wrestle with decisions…and we have to make a lot of them for people who don’t always think things all the way through.

Today’s verse talks about “the heart of the wise.” From Google/Oxford, “the heart [is] regarded as the center of a person’s thoughts and emotions, especially love, compassion, or loyalty.” We talk about the heart all the time. Songs, poems, movies, books. The heart—the literal beat of our lives here on Earth, and not just biologically. I’ve shared before that one of my favorite Latin quotes is “Cor ad cor loquitur;” it pretty much translates to, “the heart speaks to the heart,” but also means “truth speaks to truth” (e.g. we would say “the heart of the matter” or reference the heart as the truth within someone). A lot meaning in a few words. So, it would seem that “the heart of the wise,” as “the center of a person’s thoughts and emotions,” would seek things like truth. And, the truth is that we should choose love over abhorrence, compassion over indifference, honesty over deceit, and service over self (I was in Rotaract in college, and that last one is literally the tagline). So, when it comes time for our favorite cartoon character (or Michelle on this one random episode of “Full House”) to decide which shoulder to look at, the angel or the devil (usually the good and bad forms of themselves), we’re always rooting for them to pick the angel shoulder (or, for “Full House,” the Olsen twin not trying to break the rules). But, man, does that little devil character always have a good argument. That little version of our character appeals to multiple things: degree of difficulty in choosing the right thing, overall financial, social, or entertainment gain from choosing the wrong thing, and the reassurance that our TV show character shouldn’t feel guilty because this path of action will lead to the most favorable results (or at least it looks that way). In fact, during that “Full House” episode, Michelle actually listens to the “bad Michelle” for a chunk of the episode before she realizes that this advice is causing her to get into trouble and causing her difficulty in her (normally close) relationships with her family—she ends up telling the “bad Michelle” to leave and, you guessed it, listens to the “good Michelle.” Now, we can’t take all our life advice from the former TGIF lineup, but sometimes these kid shows make sense because a lot of the decisions we have before us can be boiled down to the same kind of decisions we had to make as kids (all we’ve done is level up). Is this the right thing to do? Not the easy thing, the right thing. Hey, the band The Fray says it all, “Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same.”

Now, I don’t want this to sound like an after-school special: it’s not like we don’t know not to listen to the Olsen twin who’s telling us to run away from home. When I was reflecting on this verse (which, you know, has a pretty clear message), I thought of the heart leaning toward this or that, and I thought, “What if your heart is broken?” I don’t mean you’ve been doing a bunch of sketch dealings and your conscience is a little off; I mean that the load of life got a little heavy to carry, and your heart is just broken. Do you ever feel like that? It could be due to some out of the ordinary tragic event, or something that doesn’t happen often (e.g. a breakup). But, it could also be the sum of ordinary events. Nothing is going well, it seems, no matter how hard you work or how hard you try. Maybe it’s a financial setback. Maybe you’re having difficulty in a close friendship or in the relationship with your significant other. Maybe things at work aren’t going well. Maybe you’ve set a goal that’s important to you for some sort of athletic endeavor or other personal quest. Maybe things in your life/career/etc. aren’t necessarily going awry, but you just feel like multiple facets are barely holding standard or even slipping a bit, and you feel that nothing you do seems to be all the way enough. Even worse when it seems like those around you “have it all together.”

Blanche Devereaux (yes, from “The Golden Girls”…not TGIF, it aired on NBC 😉) has the best description of this—she names it after the color magenta. She explains it like this, “Magenta. That’s what I call it when I get that way. All kinds of feelings tumbling all over themselves. Well, you know, you’re not quite blue because you’re not really sad and although you’re a little jealous, you wouldn’t say you’re green with envy, and every now and then you realize you’re kinda scared but you’d hardly call yourself yellow.” Your heart’s not shattered, but it’s definitely not 100%. What’s “the heart of the wise” supposed to do then? Now, you know you’re not going to suddenly start listening to the recipient of the salt over the shoulder and go all “Thelma and Louise” or something, but sometimes, especially when we’re a little broken, it’s tempting to look over the left shoulder more than we realize—it’s not so much in physical action, but in mental action. You begin to hear lies about you over your left shoulder, and you listen. You actually start working WITH the guy over your left shoulder…because now it’s you who begins to tell yourself things that aren’t true…it’s you who starts lying to you. Your self-talk gets a little turned around, and now you’re lying to you. See, the Enemy doesn’t want you to be living your best life like God does (you know, that’s why we don’t want to listen to that guy).
But, when your heart is in a magenta state, the talk over your left shoulder that’s not you begins to turn into your voice echoing the same sentiment: “You’re not good enough. Why didn’t you do better on that project at work? Somebody else could’ve. If you were a better family member/partner/parent, you wouldn’t be dealing with _______. Why didn’t you foresee that insert completely and reasonably unexpected life expense here? If you were better at _____ or weren’t so _______, your friends would like you more. Why aren’t you smarter? Hey, and while we’re at it, have you checked in the mirror lately?”

Does any of that sound a little familiar? Does this sound like some of what you’ve heard when you’re down and, in turn, down on yourself? Do you lie like that too? Cause it is lying, by the way. Give that mirror a glance: you know you look awesome. All this nonsense about not being good enough?! Of course you’re good enough! God made you exactly who you needed to be to fill the you-sized place in the world, and only you will fill it. Life exists in a balance, with our paths intertwining, and each person has a specific purpose. Plus, Jesus already made it clear that He thinks you’re worth dying for. If it was only you, He would’ve still gone through everything. So, the not being good enough—that’s not God’s brand. That’s a lie from the Enemy. See, when the Enemy lies to you, he lies using your weaknesses (we all have them); he tries to make it believable. He lies very effectively. He’s good at it.

It’s starts off as just some negativity from somewhere, but if you lean left with it, these statements only grow in volume. See, if we let them, those lies start to happen in our own voices. We tell ourselves these. We beat ourselves up. Why do we do that? Because, just like we have to guard our hearts against making bad choices and lean into making good ones when faced with moral decisions (think like listening to Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio), we have to guard our hearts against leaning into negativity when faced with the less overt crossroads in our lives. Wisdom, “the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment” (Google/Oxford), cannot be attained through lying to yourself (or listening to someone else lie) about who you are. So, the wise lean toward truth: love over abhorrence, compassion over indifference, honesty over deceit, and service over self. Yeah, those things don’t just apply to our dealings with other people. Mark 12:31 reminds us that God wants us to “love your neighbor as yourself.” See, we concentrate on being good humans to others, but God doesn’t want us to forget the “as yourself” part. Honor God by loving who He created you to be and by working to cultivate what He painted into you. Have compassion for yourself when you mess up; ask for forgiveness and guidance, and try again. Don’t make your past mistakes (or even things that just didn’t work out and aren’t totally mistakes) your identity. That’s not the identity God made for you, and God ordered the Cosmos: He knew exactly who He wanted when He made you. Going through our list of truths, not making the lies your identity is where you’ll hit the “honesty over deceit” part. Now, “service above self”—for self? You’re probably wondering how I’m getting out of that last one. Leaning into the truth on the right (when the lies on the left might make more sense in our weak moments) is hard. Your “self” might want to listen to whatever’s easiest, but the service comes in with this: serve your quest to being who God wants you to be by ignoring the negative that is so tempting to listen to. All of this is easier said than done, especially when we’re feeling magenta, but that’s the goal. Ask God for help; He’ll send help in a variety of ways—just be looking for it, look for the truth (it’s not found in negative talk). God is WAYYYYYY better at telling the truth than we or the Enemy or anyone is at telling lies. Let your heart listen. “This is the way; walk in it.” To do our best on our journeys, let’s move toward the angel on our right shoulder—that left shoulder is just covered in salt anyway.”