The Voice and Fruit Salad

Matt and I found ourselves watching The Voice the other night. Unlike American Idol, everyone who gets invited to try out for The Voice actually has a really great voice. The celebrity judges have their backs turned during the audition, and they only push their button to turn their chair around if they are interesting in recruiting this voice for their team. In that case, all the judges who turn their chairs compete for the singer’s choice of which team they will join. And so this happened with a young, aspiring country singer, Adley Stone. She had a strong voice that needed a little fine-tuning. So, professional country singer Blake Shelton, and pop star Christina Aguilera both turned their chairs. As they each began to plea their case to the artist, Christina assures Adley that if she wants good vocal training, she should pick her. After all, Christina Aguilera is a stellar vocalist, and would be able to fine tune her runs, and dissect her voice on a vocalist level. Then Blake Shelton noted that country music is all about telling a story. If the aspiring singer wanted to learn how to share life experiences by connecting with the listeners in an honest way, she should choose him. What a good come back! I tucked that moment in my mind, and it came back to me as I was teaching the women’s Bible study this week. A discussion arose about the differences between knowledge and wisdom. We were talking about giving heed to God’s Word (Heb. 2:1). Immediately, the Aguilera/Shelton face-off came to mind. Blake made a brilliant distinction between knowing how to sound well, and knowing how to use what you have to sing. Now I’m not suggesting for even a second that Christina Aguilera can’t sing, because she most certainly can. But for the sake of the argument they were having, Christina was offering knowledge and Blake was offering wisdom. The warning in Hebrews is, “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.” A good little Bible student knows that whenever you see the word therefore, you need to go back and see what it is there for. So in doing that we saw that the author has already laid down the knowledge that Jesus Christ is God’s Son, heir of all things, creator of the worlds, the express image of God’s person, sustains all things, has purged our sins, and has been raised to sit at the right hand of his Father. So far, the author has proven that Christ is superior to both the prophets and the mighty angels. That’s some serious knowledge that he just dropped! Yet he implores them to give earnest heed to what they have heard. Our whole person needs to absorb this message: our minds, affections, heart, and will. It is more than mere news; it is the life-changing gospel news. It demands our most careful attention. Knowledge is great, but don’t stop there! My pastor’s favorite cliché is: "Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in your fruit salad." Blake was offering the whole salad in his coaching, and the artist chose to go with him.