A Thought For The Week Of October 23, 2017

"But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong." (1 Corinthians 1:27) God will do whatever God will do, and God will choose whomever God will choose. That seems to be the basic message of this passage. We have a tendency to assume that God will do things "our" way - that God will act exactly as we expect God to act. Here is where we find the truth in the accusation that we create God in our own image - which is an accusation often lobbed at Christians, and not without reason. The ironic thing about it is that it is not at all a biblical principle; it's not even remotely what the Bible tells us to expect from God. The Bible tells us that God acts in ways that can amaze and confound and confuse and sometimes even anger us. This passage (vv. 27-31) points that out. Who would choose the foolish or the weak or the low for an important task? You would look for the opposites - the wise and the powerful and the rich. You would look for those who are respected and admired and envied. Who else would serve God? Who else would God choose? Except - God chooses whomever God will choose. God delights in the foolish and the weak and the low. Possibly because they're the ones most open to God, while those whom we put on a pedestal are usually too busy blowing their own horns, delighting in their successes and assuming that their agenda is God's agenda. And it's easy for the rest of us to give in, and assume that those folks and what they are and what they have are the chosen of God. Not necessarily. Maybe not even commonly. We have to be very careful to recognize everyone we meet - no matter their station in life - as potentially one who is called by God to speak God's truth and to reveal God's ways to us. Not everyone speaks for God, of course - but anyone could speak for God. That's the point. We dismiss people before we take time to discern at our own peril.