Dr. Henry Cloud has written that there are three types of people in the world:

1. Wise People

2. Foolish People

3. Evil People.

According to Dr. Cloud, you can quickly determine which category a person belongs in by observing how they respond when confronted with the truth about themselves or a situation. When a wise person is confronted with the truth about themselves or a situation, they immediately own it, and begin to make adjustments in their behavior. When a foolish person is confronted with the truth about themselves or a situation, they typically blame something outside of themselves. When an evil person is confronted with the truth about themselves or a situation, they will seek to harm the truth teller.

Once you know what category a person belongs in, then you can manage them accordingly. Since truth causes a wise person to change, you expose the wise person to more truth. Since truth causes a fool to blame external factors, you stop exposing them to truth since they will only change when the pain of changing is greater than the pain of not changing. And since an evil person is not interested in change, you allow your attorney or the police to deal with them.

This week I reread the story of Rehoboam, a man who easily ranks as one of the biggest fools in the Bible. Few people begin their lives with the advantages that Rehoboam had. First, he had a godly heritage. His grandfather David, was a man after God’s own heart. His father Solomon had divine wisdom and largeness of heart. Second, he inherited an earthly kingdom. He could not testify with the Temptations “that poppa was a rolling stone, wherever he laid his hat was his home. And when he died, all he left us was alone.” (Or did they mean a loan? LOL. Interesting….) Not so with Rehoboam. He was left a Kingdom so wealthy that his father drank out of golden cups.

Sadly, he lost it all. Why? When confronted with a decision about how best to manage the Kingdom he had inherited, Rehoboam made a horrible mistake. The wealth of his kingdom was partly derived from burdensome taxation. The men who had counseled his father advised him to ease the financial burden on the citizens. But the men who he selected be his counselors advised him to increase it. 1 Kings 12:8 tells us what Rehoboam did:

…he forsook the counsel which the old men gave him, and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and stood before him.

Their counsel led to an uprising that cost Rehoboam his Kingdom.

The most significant different between his two groups of counselors was not their age. Rather, it was their perspective. Tellingly, although the text shares their age, it also makes it clear that these men “grew up” with” Rehoboam and “stood before him.” In other words, they had only seen what he had seen, experienced what he had experienced, only knew what he knew. Age wasn’t t the issue. Lack of perspective was. They could not bring a well informed perspective to the decision that he had to make.

The word “perspective” derives from the science of optics. The science of optics explores how we see. Perspective is how one perceives and is one of the essential aptitudes of any artist. Designing a painting, or a building, or a car requires you to understand how the various component of an object fit together and relate to one another. Rehoboam’s younger advisors could not see the relationship between high taxes and social discontent. Everybody wasn’t drinking out of golden cups. The older men had perspective. They had experienced the devastating effects of Solomon’s shortsighted policy, and tried to tell Rehoboam the truth. But I already told you what fools do.

During the month of February, we celebrate Black History month. Originally conceived by Dr. Carter G Woodson in 1933, its purpose is to celebrate the distinctive contributions of people of African descent across the globe. But just don’t celebrate, study. Just don’t wear a dashiki, do some homework. Study how our ancestors survived. Study how they endured. Study how they resisted. And study how, against seemingly impossible odds, they maintained their dignity in a world that was designed to decimate it at turn. And just don’t study history books. All of the heroes are not written about in books or featured in documentaries. Study your family. Study your parents and grandparents and great parents. Learn their survival and success strategies, and use them to inform your journey.

We all need people in our lives with perspective—people who have been around a minute, and have seen their share of sunshine and rain—people who remember colored only water fountains—people who remember covenant housing restrictions—people who migrated to places they had never been with no support and no money but made something out of nothing—people who remember eating government cheese—people who know how to make kool-aid, people who started at the bottom and fought for a piece of the American dream while living through the American nightmare.

Get some folk on your team who have experience. They will keep you from losing your kingdom. Don’t be no fool!