Do you ever come across someone who believes he is the smartest person in the room? To quote Job’s statement to Zophar: “You people really know everything, don’t you? And when you die, wisdom will die with you.” (Job 12:2)
He knows the answers. He smirks at the question. He has it all figured out. He second-guesses every decision. He sits up in the stands and criticizes the one on the field.
Chuck Mills was a coach in college football for many years. He coached at Utah State, Wake Forest, Southern Oregon. He once said that a spectator was somebody “who sits forty rows up in the stands and then wonders why a 17 year old kid can’t hit another 17 year old kid with a football forty yards away. Then after the game is over, that very same spectator goes out to the parking lot and he can’t find his own car.”
The Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy, wrote, “An arrogant person considers himself perfect. This is the chief harm of arrogance. It interferes with a person's main task in life - becoming a better person.”
So here is the challenging question to consider, myself included. Do you sometimes think you are the smartest person in the room? Be careful. Be very careful. Proverbs 26:12 reminds us, “Do you see someone who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.”