May 19, 2009

1 Corinthians 3:18 Don’t fool yourself. Don’t think that you can be wise merely by being up-to-date with the times. Be God’s fool—that’s the path to true wisdom.

How easy it is for us to fool ourselves. We can all look back at our lives and remember things we did or thought that seemed right at the time but in retrospect were not in touch with our true selves. Maybe we wanted something so badly that we refused to see what now seems so evident. Maybe we were just going with the flow of our friends or culture but looking back we doubt the wisdom of doing so. It is hard work to examine our hearts long and deep enough to confront our true motives and feelings. Often we don’t wish to take the time or the energy and settle for our first impulse. Paul asks his friends in Corinth to make the effort. He suggests that they question the conventional wisdom and try to see things form God’s perspective. That may require times of silence and solitude. It may require saying “no” to some other things in life to carve out the space to say “yes” to this kind of reflection. I think many of us instinctively know that doing this would be worthwhile but it doesn’t come easy, so we fool ourselves into thinking we will be all right without it. Paul suggests otherwise. Memorial Day is coming up. Many of us will supposedly have some extra time. Conventional wisdom says go, go, go. Maybe God is saying “be foolish” and use some of that time differently.

Don