How often have you wondered if you are a complete idiot like some would suggest? You believe in God despite the suffering you endure, and you believe His Life within allows you to do things that would be impossible without Him. A lot of people would roll their eyes and wonder how someone could be so stupid. This whole faith thing is hard sometimes. We believe in someone we can’t see or touch, trusting Him with our very lives. We share this message of Good News with others, often getting rebuffed or ignored because of the way it sounds.The idea that God loves us enough to sacrifice for us to move into relationship with Him, that He continues to pursue us even when we are diabolically opposed to Him, and the hope that we maintain even in the midst of suffering that He will get us through and that He knows best even in the pain—all of that is pretty crazy to many others.I think the worst of it is the hit to our pride. We don’t want to look like an idiot. We don’t want to stand under the patronizing glare of someone who thinks they are superior and intelligent while we remain the foolish Christian.The funny thing, though, is that God actually promised that we would look like fools! For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who [are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.” Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.” 1 Corinthian 1:18-31Jesus has to be more precious to me than being thought of as smart.We often revere those we consider intelligent, educated and superior because of their debate skills or their knowledge. But God is clear throughout the Bible that arrogance in knowledge is not His way. He has chosen the base and despised—the things that are “not”.Mike Wells used to talk about becoming a “not” just as Jesus did when He was on the earth. That meant that everything Jesus did, He only did because the Father did it through Him. When we allow His Life to flow through as we live as a branch on the Vine, we do things not because we think we should or we are commanded to, but because it’s a natural outflow of the Life in us. We are so filled up, this isn’t a strain, but an overflow that moves just as easily as water pouring out of a cup when it gets too full.My daughter asked me the other day about an apple tree in our neighborhood we were walking by. Last season, it was fully laden with apples and we could pick one and munch on it while we walked to the park. It’s now winter, and the tree looks all but dead. My daughter asked me when it would be an apple tree again, like it’s state of being had changed. I explained that it was still an apple tree, but the fruit would only appear after the spring buds and flowers had run their course and moved into the summer. And they wouldn’t be ready to eat until the fall.This isn’t something an apple tree has to try to do, though. It doesn’t have to work to be who it is. It’s always an apple tree, but fruit is not always evident. You don’t walk by listening to it strain to produce this fruit either. It’s a natural outflow of the life moving through it from the roots to the trunk to the branches and out into the apples.The Christian life isn’t a place where the smartest, strongest and most superior get ahead. We are children of God, regardless of how dead our branches look at the moment. The fruit isn’t ours to claim because Christ’s Life did all the producing! So, we can become a “not” and be ok with that. If someone calls you an idiot, you can smile and agree. God has called the ones who look weak and foolish so that it is more clear to those around you that His Life is what is bringing about the fruit. We only can boast in the One who achieves this through us, and what a boast it is!
Foolishness and Fruit