Latest / Beliefs, Ballots, And BullDawgs / Monday August 24, 2026
Transcript
- Greg: Good morning, friends. It is Monday, August 24th. I'm your host, Greg Miller, and this is the latest episode of Beliefs, Balance, and Bulldogs. And we are going to start this Monday with some incredibly good news. We got college football this weekend. Now, I'm not saying it's good college football, certainly not big boy college football, or maybe even meaningful college football, but it's real, live college football, and you better believe it'll be on my TV this weekend. Our ⁓ our Georgia segment for for today, we're gonna keep it short, we're gonna keep it light. We're gonna we're gonna ask a question like we've been doing. We've talked about the backup quarterbacks, the receivers, we we've talked about all the different position groups, who needs to step up, who's gonna be important, who may be a breakout star, who may be a surprise. We've we've talked about all that. Today I got a question though. Is this if we could mic up one current player for a practice or game day or whatever, who would you pick? And I think there's there's a bunch of different options here, but I'm Again, I'm I'm asking for who do you think would be the most entertaining, the most enlightening, the most informative to the inside of the program? Who do you think would just be the best audio? You know, who's giving you the most sideline juice? Who's talking trash to the other guys in practice? But who's the guy responsible for hyping everybody up? Who's who's the guy that's keeping things light and making the players and the coaches laugh? Who who's who's the one that's giving us that real life behind the scenes Georgia football personality? I think we got some we got some really cool personalities. The the dudes on this year's roster are fun. ⁓ so I think there's a few possibilities. I think there's some good answers. ⁓ Rayland Wilson, I think, would be good. Well, lineback linebackers are always bringing energy. This guy's he's the leader, he's the middle linebacker. You know he's gonna be talking the whole day on defense because he's the one calling the plays and communicating. I'd I'd like to hear what that sounds like in the middle of all that chaos on defense when all those athletes are flying around. I I think Raylan would really I don't know how entertaining it'd be, but I think for a pure football guy, I think hearing Rayland work through a game would be pretty enlightening. Another one's a personal favorite of mine is just because he's a feel-good guy, just seems like a great kid, be lost and lucky. ⁓ veteran tight end, been around for a while, you know, grew up, his dad played in the program, just an absolute UGA dude. It just seems like a good guy, seems funny, seems lighthearted, seems like a guy that all of his teammates love. He's constantly involved in charity. I think Lawson would be a fun guy to to hear his thoughts on on a practice or game or even just just his thoughts on life. Just going throughout a normal day in his life would be pretty cool. The ⁓ the next guy I want to mention is KJ Bolden. ⁓ KJ would be interesting. You you know DBs are known for talking, DBs are known for having some swag, and DBs are certainly known for being a little confident, maybe even arrogant. And I I I bet you KJ's got some swagger, and I would love to hear him talking some junk back in the secondaries. He's As he's making a break on a play or or or diagnosing something early. I think KJ would be an interesting one to hear as well. And then the next guy that popped up to me would be old Nate Frazier. And part of it just because Nate's a dude from the West Coast. Nate grew up out in Compton. You know Nate would be entertaining as hell to listen to how he he approaches things down here in the Deep South player for the University of Georgia. And running backs always seem to have personality. Nate seems to have fun. He I would love to hear him after a big run or after he has a big collision with somebody. I think Nate would be pretty entertaining. And then I think it'd be cool to I hear from one of the big men. Maybe maybe a guy like Ernest Green, who's been around for a while and just just to hear what it's like to to get that constant war in the tr war in the trenches, just play after play. But I I think if I was picking one, I think for a game day experience, I go with Raylon Wilson. Just middle linebacker, the energy, the the leadership, just the calling out of all the plays to coordinate that defense. I I feel like Rayland this year would be some really good mic'd up content for a game day. But that's just my opinion. Which ⁓ which player on on this year's roster would you want to hear from a play, a practice, a game situation, or or even just going through their class schedule on a normal day? Let me let me know what you think. Who would you ⁓ who would you be interested in knowing and getting to know a little bit better ⁓ by having them mic'd up for something? All right, we're gonna do something a little bit different this week for our ⁓ for our Bible study. We're going to ⁓ we're gonna do the entire week from the book of Proverbs. ⁓ and today we're going look into how the the book of wisdom teaches us to spot a fool. And it's it's not what you think. You don't you don't look for somebody who's stupid, you don't look for somebody who's uneducated, you don't necessarily even look for somebody who's wrong. According to the Bible, according to Proverbs, you look for somebody who can't even imagine that they might be wrong. Proverbs chapter 12, verse 15. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice. Well, welcome to Proverbs Week. And apparently we're going to start Monday by getting our feelings hurt. For the next five days, I want us to dig into I think what is one of the most practical books in the entire Bible. And we're not just going to get on here and read a cute little proverb every morning. We we really want to dig into this. I want to take this ancient book of wisdom and crash it directly into our modern life. our relationships, our mouths, our tempers, our friendships, our work, our culture. And most importantly, I want to look at myself through this book. Proverbs is not just useful when I'm reading it and thinking about everything that's wrong with everybody else. Proverbs is useful and sometimes dangerous when I realize that Solomon might just be talking about me. So let's start with with wisdom itself. According to Proverbs, one of the first signs that you're becoming wise is recognizing that maybe you don't know as much as you think you do. It reminds me of a story, and I this this was a very enlightening moment from my personal past. I I had a friend of mine who I just for years thought I just couldn't imagine how he was always so confident, how he had so much belief in himself. He just seemed like no matter what the situation was. He was confident. He he just believed he was going to be okay. He was going to win the situation or whatever it was. And then there was a particular situation where from the outside end, I was able to witness it. And I can tell you, in this particular situation, he had absolutely zero chance of being the winner. He was, in fact, completely wrong, about to get his you know what stomped in, and still had absolutely no fear, no backdown in him. And in that moment, I realized it wasn't bravery or courage, it was ignorance. He was just too foolish to know what was about to happen. And that's where his confidence came from. And if you look around in today's society, you will realize that ignorance and confidence are often directly linked in a frightening manner. So many people go through this world just believing that they are completely right, completely positive, and that they will always come out on top. And it's out of sheer ignorance. It's not confidence at all. So anyway, wisdom is realizing you might not know as much as you think you do. And then when the Bible uses the word fool, you know, sometimes we're thinking of somebody who's who's not very bright. And that's not the point. In fact, the Bible is quick to point like a fool can be very intelligent, very educated, quite successful, wealthy, powerful. A fool can be very articulate. It they might actually know more than everybody in the room. But the problem with the fool isn't the intelligence, it's the teachability. That's the key. Listen to that part. It's the teachability. The way of the fool is always right in his own eyes. That's the problem. The fool has already decided. He's already reached the verdict and he has already convinced himself. And now every conversation just becomes an opportunity to prove what he already believes. Does that sound familiar in today's world? But then we look at the other half. A wise man listens to advice. The wise man realizes he still has room to learn and has a willingness to do so. That's a completely different posture towards life. And and Proverbs comes back to this idea over and over and over again. In chapter 18, verse 2, Proverbs tells us: a fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion. Holy cow, like that that almost seems unfair. Think about this. Solomon wrote this book thousands of years ago, before X, before Facebook, before Twitter, before comment sections and posts and likes and cable news stuff. Before everybody was walking around with a microphone and a camera in their pocket. And yes, I understand the hypocrisy of someone who's filming themselves right now. But yet, like, could you could you describe modern culture any better than the way he did it here? A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion. We have we live in a society where we've never been given more opportunities to express our opinions. Everybody has a platform, everybody has a take, everybody has a response. And everybody needs everybody else to know exactly what they think right now. But Proverbs asks us a different question. Do you actually want to understand, or do you just want to be heard? And they're not the same thing. This one hits home for all of us. And and and if you're honest, every single one of us can can relate to this. If have you ever been in an argument where the other person is talking and and you're technically listening? But you're not exactly listening. You're reloading. They're talking, and the whole time you're just thinking, ⁓ I can't wait till they're finished because I've got something for that. We've all done it, whether it's in our marriage, politics, work, family, social media. We rarely listen these days to understand what the other person is saying. We just listen long enough to find a weakness in their argument so that we can attack. And then somewhere along the way, winning the argument becomes way more important to both sides. Than reaching an understanding. And Proverbs is quick to tell us that that is absolutely foolish. And here's where this gets a little bit more uncomfortable. That is not just a problem with our culture. It's a problem with me. And look, let me let me give you a little wisdom test this morning. When's the last time somebody changed your mind? Like, seriously, when's the last time you actually had a strongly held opinion? Somebody presented you some better information than what you already had. And then you said, you know what? I was wrong. When's the last time somebody corrected you? And instead of immediately defending yourself or you position, you actually stopped to consider whether they might have a point. It's difficult. Look, correction hurts. And Proverbs gives us an extraordinary test for wisdom. Proverbs chapter nine, verse eight and nine says, Reprove a wise man and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will still be even wiser. Think about that. Like one of the ways scripture distinguishes wisdom from foolishness is by watching what happens when someone corrects you. That's convicting. And if it's not, it should be. Because I like correction when I'm the one giving it, but receiving it? No, I don't think so. Maybe one measure of my wisdom isn't how much I know. Maybe it should be how do I respond when somebody tells me something that I don't want to hear or something that I didn't know. Do I immediately get defensive? Do I attack their motives? Do I change the subject? Do I bring up something they did to try to reverse it? Or do I start by constructing my rebuttal to defend my position? Or do I do what I should do and stop for one brief second and just say, maybe there's something here that I need to hear? That's wisdom. So why is this so hard? We all know it is. Why? There's something standing in the way. We all deal with it to varying degrees, but we all deal with it. It's pride. Chapter 16, verse 18, Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. We've all heard this verse forever. And when we hear pride, we usually picture somebody, you know, some arrogant person walking around just thinking they're better than everybody. But look, pride can be very quiet, and it can be much quieter than that image. Pride can just sound like somebody who's quietly thinking to themselves, and nobody needs to tell me how to raise my kids. I know what I'm doing. She doesn't understand what I'm going through. He doesn't know what he's talking about. I've already made up my mind, or maybe the most dangerous one. And we all do this from time to time. That's just who I am. So we just need you to deal with. Look, sometimes pride isn't a I'm better than you. Sometimes pride is simply a a a mentality of I don't need anybody to tell me anything because I've already got it all figured out. And according to Proverbs, that is very, very dangerous. Think about the world we live in now. We are, we are. able to with with social media and algorithms to surround ourselves primarily with people who disagree with us. If we don't like what somebody says, we can unfollow them, we can block them, we can mute them, change the channel, listen to a different podcast, find another website, what whatever. We eventually we can construct an entire information system where everybody tells us, hey, you're right. It's an echo chamber and and we're all guilty of this. Left, right, ⁓ everybody. The algorithms learn what keeps us engaged and then they show more of us. We click on it, we watch it, we nod, and we become increasingly convinced. And here's the danger. If the only voices you're willing to hear are the voices that already agree with you, you're not seeking wisdom. You're seeking confirmation. And and look, as Christians, we're not immune to this. We can even do it with the Bible. And this may be the most dangerous part of it. Instead of Instead of opening the scripture and asking God, what are you saying? We tend to open the scripture already knowing what we want it to say. And then we hunt for a verse that something that supports our position, supports our politics, our relationship, our anger, our theology or our behavior. We aren't asking for scripture to shape us. We're asking for scripture to endorse us. And that's backwards. That's not how it's supposed to be. As a Christian, we shouldn't want to stand over the Bible deciding whether or not God's word agrees with us. God's word stands over us. Look, sometimes scripture should encourage me, sometimes scripture should comfort me, sometimes scripture should strengthen me, and sometimes scripture should correct me and tell me when I'm wrong. And I gotta tell you, if I've managed to interpret the Bible in such a way that God agrees with me about everything, I should probably get a little bit uncomfortable because one of us is God and it ain't me. And that brings us to where Proverbs actually begins. Chapter one, verse seven. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. That's it. That's the foundation. Before money, before relationships, before parenting, work, before controlling our tongues, before any of that, wisdom begins here. God is God, and I'm not. And that's what the fear of the Lord recognizes not merely terror. Reverence, awe, submission, the recognition that God sees what I cannot see. God knows what I do not know, and God understands what I cannot understand. Therefore, when God's wisdom collides with mine, my wisdom is the one that needs to move. That's the beginning of real wisdom. So here's what I want us to do today. Think of think of something that you're absolutely convinced you're right about. Maybe it's something in your marriage, maybe it's something with one of your kids, or you know, a political position, a ⁓ A relationship that's gone bad, something professional, something theologically. Maybe it's a decision you've made, or maybe it's something you've been angry about. Now ask yourself Is there any possibility that I'm wrong about some part of this? Maybe not completely wrong. Maybe you're even 95% right. But could there be 5% that maybe you're missing? Could there be something you don't know? Could there be something that the other person knows that you don't? Could your emotions be affecting your judgment? Could something from the past be affecting this moment? Could your pride be involved? Could scripture challenge something you've already assumed? And then I want you to pray one of the most dangerous prayers you can pray. God, if I'm wrong about any part of this, show me. That's a grown-up prayer because you have to be willing for God to answer it. So maybe that's where we leave it today. The fool needs to be right. The wise person wants to become right. The fool will tell you, I've already figured this out. But the wise person is looking at what am I missing? The wise person wants truth. Even when the truth corrects them, even when the truth embarrasses them, even when the truth requires an apology, even when the truth requires them to change. And here's the beautiful thing: you don't lose somebody. I don't want to say this. You don't lose when somebody corrects you in their right. You just become wiser. And if you think about it, even if it hurts a little, that's a win. So welcome to Proverbs Week. For the next few days, we're going to let ancient wisdom just collide right with our modern life. And I'm going to try really hard not to spend the entire time pointing at the rest of y'all and I'm going to look at myself because it's easy to point at everybody else. But we want Proverbs to point back at us. So tomorrow we'll tackle another piece of wisdom that our modern world desperately needs to hear. But today, let's start where we are. Stay teachable. Listen before you speak. Stop surrounding yourself exclusively with people who tell you what you want to hear. And have enough humility to occasionally say three words that wise people are never afraid to say. I was wrong. Proverbs tells us the way of a fool is right in his own eyes. But a wise man listens to advice. Don't ask God to merely confirm what you already believe. Ask him to correct what you've gotten wrong. The fool needs to be right. The wise person wants to become right. That's it for today, guys. Thanks for tuning in. As always, get in your Bibles, say your prayers, love one another, and tell the truth. God bless.