Illustrator: Jack Foster“For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.” (1Cor 1:25)
I think the question isn’t so much are we willing to become fools for Christ, rather, have we been fools all along? I suppose if I were highly intelligent to begin with, it might cause me some embarrassment to become a fool. But if I’ve been a fool all my life, what do I have to lose?
I started making a fool of myself early in life. When I was in the third grade, I was sitting at my desk one day, bored and restless, when I started wondering if perhaps my foot would fit into the cubby of my desk. Yeah, it fit! It fit a little too well; it was stuck! So I started rocking back and forth in an attempt to dislodge my foot, which caused my desk to fall backwards on the floor. There I was on my back, with my foot sticking straight up in the air, still wedged tightly in the desk. To make matters worse, I was wearing a skirt that day, so the whole class had a pretty good view of my underwear.
My mother always warned me to wear my nicest underwear in public in case I should meet with an unfortunate accident. I don’t remember what condition my underwear was in that day, but suffice it to say, wearing hand-me-downs from my four older sisters had put me in quite the awkward position.
Even on our best, most productive day, our goals and agendas could appear foolish to God. His ways are higher than our ways, so we just have to concede that all the careful planning in the world won’t impress God. Psalm 113:6 says that God ‘stoops down’ to look on the heavens and the earth. God actually has to humble Himself in order to speak to us, or listen to our big ideas!
“For this is what the high and lofty One says – I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.” (Is 57:15)
Here God seems to be saying that even though He has no obligation to give us the time of day, He will stoop to our level if our hearts are right. We don’t necessarily need to become foolish in order to receive Him, but we do need to be remorseful for our sins, and thirsty for God’s wisdom and righteousness. I can understand why God wouldn’t want to go through all the trouble of stooping to our level, if our level was all about our ego and pride, and highfaluting ideas. Still, some days my foolishness gets the best of me.
I’m glad God made sure to include fools in the Bible, otherwise I’d worry I was the only one. Zacchaeus climbed a sycamore tree to get a glimpse of Jesus as He walked by. He might have looked like a fool to some people, don’t you think? Imagine in this day and age if the Pope was planning a parade down Hollywood Blvd, and Robert DeNiro climbed a palm tree to get a closer look. Fool? Oh yeah. Big time. But in Zacchaeus’ case, Jesus was so pleased with this act of desperation; He invited Himself over to Zach’s house for dinner! I have done some pretty desperate things trying to get God’s attention. Who knows, maybe He’ll come to my house for dinner! I hope He likes macaroni and cheese.
