Everything is backwards. The good die young. Evil outlasts the virtuous. The wicked thrive. Everything is upside-down. The weight of what’s wrong can overwhelm the God-sensitive soul. Like the Psalmist, our feet can slip, we can lose our foothold (Ps. 73:2) when we consider the unfair, backward dealings of the world.
They have no struggles;
their bodies are healthy and strong.
They are free from the burdens common to man;
they are not plagued by human ills.
Therefore pride is their necklace;
they clothe themselves with violence.
From their callous hearts comes iniquity;
the evil conceits of their minds know no limits.
They scoff, and speak with malice;
in their arrogance they threaten oppression.
Their mouths lay claim to heaven,
and their tongues take possession of the earth (Ps 73:4-9)
I read in the papers and watch on TV the meaningless acts of rage, wartime horror stories, families in despair, depressed children over family tragedies of illness, death, and divorce, and the world of substance abuse killing—all the souls of men and women, children and families. This is not the way it is supposed to be.
Some ask, “Where is God?” Some just out rightly say, “God is dead, gone, finished, absent, never existed anyway…” Even for the believer, life can be a constant reminder of what the world could be like if God did not exist. Yet, still believing…there is a God who acts in the history and in the mundane of human existence. It seems to me foolishness, even in the face of the worst evil can unleash, to think that everything is just left to chance. I think of Steve Turner’s poem, aptly called “Chance.”
If chance be the Father of all flesh,
disaster is his rainbow in the sky,
and when you hear
State of Emergency!
Sniper Kills Ten!
Troops on Rampage!
Whites go Looting!
Bomb Blasts School!
It is but the sound of man worshiping his maker.
This cannot be the answer we must succumb to… But here’s the rub, even the answer to the questions of meaninglessness, hopelessness, confusion, and redemption seems foolishness to those who do not have ears to ear.
One morning, on my drive to work, I was listened to Imus (in the morning) making some comments on Mel Gibson’s movie, “The Passion of the Christ.” He wasn’t being critical of the Passion, but his flippant word-bite, “If I were God, I just won’t have done it that way” (meaning the cross). This spoke volumes about our so-called human wisdom. Meaning: Imus would have chosen some other means other than crucifying his son to save mankind. Well, that’s the point. It took what looked like foolishness to man to answer the questions of evil, suffering, sin, goodness, peace, God, heaven, life, and hell. It took the foolishness of Jesus to fix this world where “everything is backwards” and to redeem you and me. Yes, it took a fool to make everything right side up.
Michael Card’s song (of some years back), God’s Own Fool, came to mind as I listened to Imus’ comment. Here are the words of the song and some Scriptures that show insight and might help make sense out of this sometimes overwhelmingly senseless world:
It seems I’ve imagined Him all of my life
The wisest of all of mankind
But if God’s holy wisdom is foolish to man
He must have seemed out of His mind
“For the message 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; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.’ Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher 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 know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength” (1 Corinthians 1:18-25).
For even His family said He was mad
And the priests said a demon’s to blame
But God in the form of this angry young man
Could not have seemed perfectly sane
“And He came home, and the multitude gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. And when His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, ‘He has lost His senses’” (Mark 3:22).
“And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, ‘He is possessed by Beelzebul,’ and “He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons’” (Mark 3:22).
“The Jews answered and said to Him, ‘Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?’” (John 8:48)
“The Jews said to Him, ‘Now we know that You have a demon’” (John 8:52)
“There arose a division again among the Jews because of these words. And many of them were saying, ‘He has a demon, and is insane; why do you listen to Him?’” (John 10:19-20)
When we in our foolishness thought we were wise
He played the fool and He opened our eyes
When we in our weakness believed we were strong
He became helpless to show we were wrong
And so we follow God’s own fool
For only the foolish can tell
Believe the unbelievable
Come be a fool as well
“Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become foolish that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, ‘He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness’ and again, ‘The LORD knows that the reasonings of the wise, that they are useless’” (1 Corinthians 3:18-20).
“We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are prudent in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are distinguished, but we are without honor” (1 Corinthians 4:10).
So come lose your life for a carpenter’s son
For a mad man who died for a dream
And you’ll have the faith His first followers had
And you’ll feel the weight of the beam
So surrender the hunger to say you must know
Have the courage to say “I believe”
For the power of paradox opens your eyes
And blinds those who say they can see
“And Jesus said, ‘For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.’ Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things, and said to Him, ‘We are not blind too, are we?’ Jesus said to them, ‘if you were blind you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains” (John 9:39-41)
When we in our foolishness thought we were wise
He played the fool and He opened our eyes
When we in our weakness believed we were strong
He became helpless to show we were wrong
And so we follow God’s own fool
For only the foolish can tell
Believe the unbelievable
Come be a fool as well
And so we follow God’s own fool
For only the foolish can tell
Believe the unbelievable
Come be a fool as well
No one in Scripture said bearing witness of the Gospel was easy. In fact, the few times Scripture does speak of Gospel-telling, it says martyrdom is expected. It is tough being a fool in this world. Sometimes it leads to a cross. But I for one, will continue to “believe the unbelievable” and will continue to show how Christ’s foolishness is the answer to the deepest questions of life.
Posted by Chip Anderson at 05:19 AM. Filed under: In the Margins •
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