““Even if you grind fools in a mortar, even grinding them along with the grain, their folly won’t be driven from them” (Proverbs 27:22 CEB).

I recently came to a realization that turned my world upside down— most people are not very logical.

For the better part of forty years I walked around this earth assuming people used rationale and sound judgment to make decisions. Turns out I was wrong.

Robert Sapolsky, who studies biology, neurology, and other fields of science that are even more difficult to pronounce, writes, “Keep in mind that what seems like rationality is often just rationalization, playing catch-up with subterranean forces that we never suspect.”* In other words, we tend to make decisions first, then we use logic and reason to justify those decisions.

This curious little insight into human behavior may help explain why so many people these days have a difficult time knowing the difference between what is true and what is false. Never before has information been so accessible and yet, some might argue, humans have never before been so foolish.

So what do we do about it? Shake people relentlessly until they wise up?

“You have heard that it was said, You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who harass you so that you will be acting as children of your Father who is in heaven. He makes the sun rise on both the evil and the good and sends rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:43-45 CEB).

As much as we might feel like attacking foolish people for being the enemies of common sense, Jesus calls us to do the opposite. Jesus encourages us to love all people. Even the ones who traffic in conspiracy theories. Even the ones who bring up politics in the middle of an otherwise pleasant dinner. Even the ones… well, you get it. Jesus wants us to love everybody.

Now maybe, just maybe, our love will persuade foolish people to join us in our pursuit of truth and wisdom, but even if it doesn’t, our love will align us with our heavenly Father who doesn’t show partiality, who extends grace to everyone and invites us to do the same.

Lord God, thank you for loving us even in the midst of our foolishness. Help us to extend the same grace to others. Let the light of our love be a lamp to the world, guiding people toward the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen.

*Robert M. Sapolsky, Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2017) 423.