Walking with the Wise #274: Fury and the Fool

“Let a man meet a she-bear robbed of her cubs


rather than a fool in his folly.”
—Proverbs 17:12

When I was a freshman in high school I found myself in a situation that I would like to forget. There was a girl who was a junior who took a particular interest in me. We liked one another’s company so we hung out quite a bit. She had shared some problems she had been having with her college-age boyfriend. I simply listened and offered my advice. I could tell she was unhappy and that she needed to break up with him, so I counseled her to do what she already knew she wanted to do, but just needed someone to say it to her. So, she broke up with him.

Unfortunately, he was not the go-quietly-away boyfriend. He was a very jealous guy who was known to fight and was frustrated that she had dumped him, so he began to follow her around. Oh, did I mention that he was 6’2 and 195 lbs, while I was 5’9 and 135 lbs? We were both freshmen—only he was in college and I had just started high school!

One evening at about 9:30 pm, she had come over to my house to talk. We sat on my front porch swing conversing for about a half-hour when my mom let me know it was time to get ready for bed and she needed to head home. No sooner had she said “Good-bye,” and got into her car to head home than the ex-boyfriend pulled up in a truck with one of his close friends. They exchanged words for a few minutes, with her in her car and him yelling from the street. Not wishing a confrontation and thinking that she was in the car and safe, I went inside. (It was not my best moment, I know).

My mom, hearing the confrontation, went and sat outside on my dark porch swing in her nightgown to make sure she was ok. Finally, the girl drove away, and the guy turned to the porch. Angered at what had just happened, still suffering from the breakup and believing that I was the reason behind it, he turned to the porch in a rage and yelled, “I’m going to kill you!”—to whom he thought was me.

What he was unaware of was that I had extricated myself from the porch, and the person he was now speaking to was my mother. My mom is a delicate but strong woman. About 5’1 and 105 lbs., with a warm personality, she is the epitome of longsuffering and sweetness. But threaten her children and something happens. I still can’t wrap my head around what happened or what I saw that night, but a transformation occurred and one like I had never seen before or since.

When the ex-boyfriend threatened my mother, she became a lion, a bear, and a tiger rolled into one. Not even Odysseus in all of his fury could muster the intense rage within her. There came from the depth of her being such a crying howl of ferocious savagery that made my eyes as big as saucers and my heart want to explode in disbelief. In a moment—my sweet, precious, gentle, 5’1", 105-lb.-nightgown-wearing-barefoot-mother, got up from the swing, addressed the young man, leapt from the porch, and started after him. From her mouth came the shriek of a banshee that struck the young man dumb. Terrified that what he said was to a mother, and not expecting her rage to be so fierce, he ran for the truck, jumped into the passenger side, and managed to close the door just as my mom reached it. Grabbing onto the door, she managed to hoist herself upon the truck just as it started to drive away. The window was down and she stuck her head into the cab of the truck, letting loose a barrage of words and threats that cannot be repeated. And this is while the truck is moving and her little legs are trying to keep up! She finally released the truck and the two young men sped off—with adrenaline and thoughts racing as they tried to figure out what had happened.

I learned an important lesson that day—don’t mess with a woman’s children! The proverb says that it's better to meet a she-bear with her cubs than it is to encounter a fool! And if a she-bear is worse than my mother was when threatened, then keep fools far away! They are far more dangerous and destructive!

Our world is filled with fools. Lives lived with no thought or fear of God, but spent in the vain and vacuous pursuit of godless pleasure and sinful habits leads to nothing but pain and death. Keep us far away from the godless! Not that we avoid relationships with unbelievers (we are commanded to befriend and share the Gospel with them after all), but if we find their folly to be so overt as to become commonplace, or destructive to themselves and those around them, then we must remove ourselves. Like parents on a plane, when disaster comes, we have to put on our own oxygen mask before we put the mask on others.

Guard against fools and don’t listen to their stupidity. Instead, surround yourself with those who fear and trust God—walk with them, learn from them, and let their manner of life rub off on you, for their lives will result in life and peace and so will yours. Amen.