Weekly Roundup: Sunday, June 15, 2025
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We live in a world where everything is driven by one of four things: outrage, performance, comparison, or fear. Seriously, if you reflect on the majority of decisions made from the White House to the houses in your subdivision, including yours, you can trace the decision to one of these: comparison, outrage, performance, or fear.
However, wisdom offers us another perspective. It is one that most have not even considered. Wisdom personified tells her story and says she was with God before anything was made. Listen to how she tells it: "When he established the heavens, I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit ……. when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master worker" (Proverbs 8: 27 - 30).
And then, we discover something remarkable about Lady Wisdom's relationship with God. She says, "I was daily his delight, playing before him always, playing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race" (Proverbs 8:30-31).
Another translation says, "I was the architect at his side. I was his constant delight, rejoicing always in his presence" (NLT). The Message says, "Day after day, I was there, with my joyful applause."
Before the first war, the first act of racism or xenophobia, before the first human raised a hand against another, wisdom was there. She watched God create boundaries, bring order to chaos, and call creation good. She didn't respond with critique but with delight.
Wisdom, this poetic, personified voice, laughs and plays beside God like a child. Wisdom was there when the boundaries of the sea were drawn. She was present when the skies were stretched out. Her response to God's act of creation is similar to a child who takes joy in an adult who does something fun and says, "Do it again, do it again, do it again!"
Some scholars say the Hebrew implies that she played like a child on God's side. Imagine God creating a mountain, and wisdom's over there like a toddler doing cartwheels, yelling, "DO IT AGAIN!"
Wisdom isn't anxious. She's not disgusted over there, saying to herself, "Wow, humans are gonna mess this up fast." She's delighting. She's laughing. She's like a kid at recess, and creation is her playground.
Let that sink in: Wisdom delights in you. Even people who don't use their turn signals. Even toddlers who put peanut butter in the DVD player. Even you, when you forgot to pray, lost your temper, or are a dad who wears socks with sandals. Wisdom delights in you.
This element of wisdom is the missing piece for living wisely in a noisy world. Delight changes everything. It changes how we parent, how we speak, how we post, how we forgive, and how we move through a noisy world.
Rage is easy. Cynicism is trendy. But delighting in the world around you takes work and holy imagination. Delight is the weapon against despair.
For those needing to raise their voice against the injustice we are experiencing in our world, I want to remind you that when we respond to injustice with outrage, we risk becoming what we hate. When we respond with wisdom that is with delight in what is still good and hope in what can be restored, we point to a better way, a way driven by wisdom.
In a world of violence, fear, and division, wisdom delights. Not because wisdom is naïve. However, wisdom remembers how it all began, and she knows that it ends with resurrection, restoration, and rejoicing.
In an age where every decision is made out of outrage, fear, comparison, or performance, Lady Wisdom directs us to a better way.
Pastor Jamey
(Click Here to Watch the Worship Service from Gainesville First United Methodist Church, Gainesville, Georgia)
Weekend Prayer
God of Wisdom and Joy, In a world full of noise, teach us to hear Your voice. Help us turn down the volume of fear, performance, and comparison and turn our hearts toward delight, peace, and truth. Amen.
Wisdom Nugget: Delight isn’t denial. It is how wisdom refuses to be shaped by despair. Joy is a holy protest in a world gone loud.
A Question to Consider: What small but intentional step could you take this week to create space for delight, peace, and wisdom in your home?
Meme of the week
Dad Jokes
Did you hear about the father who cut off his left leg? He's all right now!
My dad won't play cards in the jungle. He says there are too many cheetahs!
Leadership Reflection:
Proverbs 8:30–31 tells us wisdom was with God at creation, “rejoicing always” and “delighting in the human race.” That word—delight—is key.
Before the first act of violence, power struggle, or injustice, wisdom was present, delighting in what God made.
Wise leaders are not defined by control or charisma but by a deep, abiding joy that sees the world not for what it is but what it can be.
Delight is not denial. It’s resistance. It’s the inner strength to choose wonder over cynicism, presence over performance.
If we want to lead wisely in an anxious world, we must cultivate what the world can’t give and algorithms can’t fake: joyful wisdom rooted in truth, shaped by compassion, and anchored in the presence of God.
The world needs less noise and more wisdom, more delight, and more leaders who reflect the quiet confidence of heaven in a culture addicted to volume.
Pastor Jamey
Photo Taken By Me
Podcast Worth Listening to
What I Read This Past Week
(I have been in Athens, Georgia for UMC Annual Conference this week so not much reading. I will be back at it next week)
North Georgia Nonprofit Highlight
Sunshine Seniors are dedicated to feeding families.We operate a weekly food pantry serving All who need food assistance. Every Tuesday 2pm -3pm.
Located St John Baptist Church 757 E E Butler Pkwy Gainesville Ga
Contact Belinda Dickey 770-654-9922 .
Happening at Gainesville First United Methodist Church, Gainesville, Georgia
Weekly Blessing and/or Quotes
“In times of turmoil, the danger lies not in the turmoil but in facing it with yesterday’s logic.” — Peter Drucker
“Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.” — Jimi Hendrix
As you go into a noisy world,
May you carry the calm of wisdom and the joy of Christ.
May your home be a place of peace, your parenting filled with grace,
And your life marked not by fear, but by holy delight. Amen.
