Our ‘Backwards’ God
Photo by Arturo Rey on Unsplash
“For since in the wisdom of God the world did not come to know God through wisdom, it was the will of God through the foolishness of the proclamation to save those who have faith. For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” 1 Cor. 1:20-25
I finally found the source of the 'backwardness' of our faith. ‘Weakness through strength’; ‘life through death’; ‘leading through servanthood’. It is ALL backwards! And there is a reason why. God, once again, doesn’t leave us hanging, He tells it plain and square...
As we see above, it is because he gave us wisdom - and we used it to choose foolishness. Indeed, we honor things like ‘looks over substance’; ‘power over love’; ‘strength over cooperation’. The list goes on and on. Look at the things we value in this world; then look at the things God does.
For instance, when I was a young woman, I was told - by this culture- that bringing eternal life into the world and nurturing and cherishing it with all my strength was “a waste of time”. But doing something to exalt myself - simply to make money and have people admire me - was “important”. And I was NEVER told that that culturally 'important thing' could certainly wait until my children were older. I had all of my life to do it - but they only had one childhood.
Also, reflect on the fact that women are told by this culture to CELEBRATE their ‘right’ to kill an eternal life - the greatest gift that women have ever been given? We cooperate with GOD Himself to form new life that will last for all eternity. We have the ability to nurture, form and grow that new life in our own bodies! No one else does; just us. And what does our culture’s ‘wisdom’ tell us?
“Our Bodies, Our Choice!!!” Kill that new life if it interferes with the “important” stuff: you know; your schedule, your wishes, your desires, your ‘figure’. For the sake of this moment; kill something that would bring you joy forever.
In other words, as you can see: using the wisdom God gave us, we have chosen stupidity. We determined that WE can be like God. WE choose who lives and dies. WE make ALL the rules! This is actually the same temptation given to Eve; and she blew it. We are still blowing it today - even with all our “Knowledge” and our new-fangled “technological progress”.
Now... we were given a chance to choose otherwise; but we don’t. We use our peanut brains to decide what is ‘important’; and when it conflicts with God’s laws, we determine that those peanut brains more readily find truth than, oh say... the CREATOR of the UNIVERSE.
So, He just chuckled and threw in some wisdom - hidden in what we call ‘foolishness’. It’s pretty funny, if you think about it.
We Christians do everything backwards - because Our God likes to mess with all those who have determined what is “forward”. He looks at their choices; and decides to do things exactly opposite. And then He makes ONLY the ‘opposite’ choices work! It’s great fun.
Watch someone who is ‘wise’ in worldly wisdom look dumbfounded when you talk about a God who is SO powerful - that he let a mob kill him.
Huh?
See their faces when you tell them that the greatest woman (and most famous) is the one who decided to be a ‘Hand Maiden’; i.e. a servant. Contrary to the popular bumper sticker ‘good women seldom make history’ - this ‘Good Woman’ actually changed history - and all mankind - forever.
That will keep feminists fuming for hours...
And so, it seems that the best way to respond to the ‘backwardness of God’ is to laugh and enjoy it. Just like Him. And perhaps the best way to actually move forward in this world, is to think of what the ‘wisest among us’ would do - and choose the complete opposite.
Seems like that works every time.
by Susan