“I know you are but what am I?”

“My dad can beat up your dad.”

“Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me.”

Most of us heard this a lot growing up. This, with nap time, teeter-totters and freeze tag, were synonymous with our childhood. Those things were expected back then but would be frowned upon if you did it as an adult. Climbing a tree in the park as a child is okay. Climbing a tree in the park as a grown-up is taboo.

At a certain point, you expect to put away childish things and put on maturity. Yeah, I would like to take a nap in the afternoon when I get a little cranky, but I have to work instead. An adult is expected to think, feel and behave differently than a child. It would be foolish if I called one of my co-workers a “poo-poo head” when ever I got mad at them. That would not be wise of me, especially if that person was my boss.

Our thoughts…. lead to emotions…. that lead to our behaviors. If I thoughts of sadness it leads to feelings of hopelessness and despair. Those behaviors could eventually lead to destructive behaviors in order to cope with the thoughts and emotions. All of a sudden you are caught in a vicious cycle of thoughts, emotions and more behaviors. This is true whether regardless of what thoughts or emotions that dwell up inside of us. Some of the ways we express those behaviors could be seen as childish and immature. It is just in our human nature to be juvenile at times.

So why should non-Christians supposed to believe us when we present the gospel to them? Let’s face it, we don’t always practice what we preach. We get angry and lash out. We gossip and slander others. We don’t often exhibit the temperament and behaviors of the Savior that we tell others about. However, here is the good news. The almighty, perfect God trusts us, flesh and blood, in all of our infirmities, to convey His message to lost world. 

Foolishness of the cross

He uses less than perfect people. He kind of has to since we all are less than perfect. We all mess up at times. Some of us are just better at hiding it than others.

The bottom line is that He uses real people, who have real struggles, who need a real Savior. Even as we grow in our faith we are still going to struggle with certain issues from time to time. The difference is the source we go to when we do mess up and need to be lifted back on our feet. Our foolish, childish self relies on “me” to be its source of strength. The wise and mature self rely on our faith in Christ. This simple faith in a Savior may not make sense to the unbeliever. They just cant understand what they do not know.

¹⁸ The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. ¹⁹ As the Scriptures say,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise
    and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.”^[e

²⁰ So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. ²¹ Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. ²² It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. ²³ So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.

²⁴ But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles,^[f] Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.

-I Corinthians 1:18-25

God’s way of providing reconciliation between Him and man was by an extremely violent, most humiliating, and destructive means. From the outside, it makes no sense. This is the way God chose to bring people back into a right relationship with Him? Seems like a foolish way to start new movement.

However, one man willingly went to the cross to be sacrificed for a lost world. He told His disciples once that no greater love does a person have that gives his life for another person. In the person of Jesus, we have someone who actually practiced what He preached. 

God is concerned about our transformation

The cross is foolishness to those who don’t believe but glorious to those who do. Some people won’t get it until they experience it themselves. It’s unbelievable until you learn to embrace it. Once you do, you begin to understand, that God in His wisdom, chose to use something completely ludicrous as the plan to reconcile humans with Himself. That’s what the cross was. That is what it is still today.

Remember that the cross was once just a couple of pieces of wood… that was once a tree… planted by God… for the divine purpose of bringing man into a right relationship with Him.   

The moment we accept His forgiveness, we are a new creation. It doesn’t mean we are perfect. We still mess up and have failures. The truth is that the more we walk with God, the more we realize our own weaknesses. We begin to see things from a new perspective. We begin to think and act differently. The way we handle our failures as a maturing Christian begins to fade from the way we handled them before.

If God uses the foolishness of the cross to bring salvation to man then he can use the foolishness of us human to convey his message to those who need it most. Even in your lowest point, when you don’t feel your best,, God will use you  to bring hope to others. Sometimes, it is in our failures and struggles that we know how to relate to others, as well. We need more “foolish Christians” who understand what it means to strive for true maturity.

You see, God is not too concerned with our experiences unless it leads to a transformation inside of us. That transformation is part of the maturity process. In time, the foolish ways we handled our mixed emotions and thoughts begin to change. This is how we know we are growing in Christ.

Again, the world will think that we are foolish for believing the way we do. Yet, that is ok. It makes perfect sense to those who have not only experienced His forgiveness but have been transformed by His grace. We are “jars of clay”-earthen vessels with flaws and inadequacies throughout. It is these broken vessels that God has chosen to convey His message to a world that needs Him most.