10 As dead flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.
2 The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left.
3 Even as fools walk along the road, they lack senseand show everyone how stupid they are.
Ecclesiastes 10:1-3
The Teacher now uses some images to talk about wisdom that are not so familiar. I am guessing not many of us have had perfume where flies get stuck, die and decay. Perhaps honey would be our equivalent. When we lived in a famine relief camp with people living in cardboard houses, manure piles from animal dung piled around the village, and no local refrigeration, flies were a continual nuisance. The leg of cow hung in the butcher’s shop and we bought meat without bone or with bone. Both had flies. We tried hanging a sticky tape from the ceiling in the kitchen over our pet turtle and flies were its protein. My take-away is that flies alert the observer that there is possible contamination.
Likewise we are told to walk or ride our bicycle facing traffic. When I see someone walking in the same direction as my car is moving and if the person is in my lane, or even worse weaving as the person walks, or walking in a group, I am immediately aware that they are not paying attention to me coming up behind. Even as with the flies, I slow down and think twice before I act – buy food or drive past.
So how do we contaminate our faith and how do we become careless and get distracted as we walk through our lives? Perhaps one answer is that flies do not belong in perfume and pedestrians do not belong walking in the same lane as cars. Both are out of place. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to shine its flashlight on our lives and consciences and show us if there are any places in our life where we are contaminating or compromising our faith walk or if there are ways we are getting sloppy in our spiritual disciplines. Perhaps we need to pull up our socks. Lord, speak to me as I wait and listen.
On the Way to Wonder 