Foolishness

For me, the hardest thing about following Christ is all the people who think it's nuts.

There are a lot of people I admire, who I would like to admire me, who aren't Christians. And to those people, my faith seems foolish; it's a weakness.

Paul explains that in 1 Cor 1:18-31. He says that God's wisdom will seem like foolishness to the world.

I think maybe faith seems foolish because to the unbeliever it looks like it forbids all the good stuff: parties, sex, money . . . Or maybe it looks foolish because it's not rational and scientific. So we Christ-followers look like fun-hating, irrational prudes, and only a fool would sign up for that. Who wants to join a movement that's all "Thou shalt not?" We have to be careful that the world sees us as joyous, not forbidding.

But Paul suggests here that God wants it to seem foolish. He says (1:27-31)" But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, 'Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.'"

One point of an irrational, foolish faith is that it keeps us from boasting. We don't brag, "I've got it all figured out." We don't say, "Join us and you'll have money, women and a full head of hair." Instead, Christians say things like, "I don't understand it all," and "I'm just doing the best I can." We acknowledge that there's much about God we don't get. But when we simply tell our stories, we show God at work -- that's boasting in the Lord.

We need to also see that our foolish faith will resonate with people at those points where the world doesn't make sense. Science can't explain why people feel like losers at life or failures in their relationships; it can't solve guilt or address the questions that come when the flood hits. And then when people ask why our marriages work or how we can be happy after what's happened to us, we have an answer that won't seem so foolish, because they see it working.