“Never try to teach a pig to sing.

    It’s a waste of time and it upsets the pig.”

The context was offering wisdom on how to select the right person for a job, or, conversely, how not to select the wrong person for a job.  It had to do with the “square peg in the round hole” scenario, where someone is employed in a position but is clearly unsuitable and counterproductive for the Company in that position. 

  You could just as well claim that the above statement is a lot of foolishness.  Why not state in simple and clear English, “Don’t select the wrong person for a job.”?  Mind you, if you’re paid thousands of dollars to prepare training courses for companies, there is an expectation that you will come up with such pithy sayings that will stick in your mind for some time after the course.

  The Apostle Paul came up with such a pithy saying in his first letter to the Church in Corinth.  In 1 Corinthians 1: 25 we read:

“For what seems to be God’s foolishness is wiser than Human wisdom, and what seems to be God’s weakness is stronger than Human strength.”

  Norman Hillyer, in commenting on this passage, writes, “To those responding to God’s call, the cross makes available the power of God to overcome sin, and reveals the true wisdom of God in offering Humanity the only effective scheme for their salvation.  All of Humanity’s unaided attempts to know God or to defeat sin prove futile.  God’s apparent weakness, shown in allowing His Son to hang on the cross, is stronger, more effective, than any Human effort.”  (NBC p1054)

  The power of God to overcome sin and to live lives reflecting His love and grace is available to us.  Let us heed Paul’s advice, let us listen to the wisdom of God and let us depend upon the strength of God as we seek to walk each day with Him.

                                                                                                Geoffrey.