Jesus Gym

I was looking up an old quote tonight by Francine Rivers, reminded of how much I enjoy her merging of Scripture and her writing. It went like this: "God takes the poor, foolish things of this world to bring glory to His name." After all, Jesus wasn't exactly born in a royal hall of kings but in a stable. We are all one in Christ, lifting each other up in love as believers should. We know who the enemy is, and he is a powerful adversary who knows us nearly as well as the Lord Himself. But the Lord is with us and goes before us in battle; we need only to stand firm in faith. That is our only duty. Why is it so hard? I have written before about professional athletes who spend their long days with training at 4AM, rigorous drills, water breaks, and more practice. Why is that we, as people, yearn for water breaks when we have done no work? What would it look like if our days were filled-- not with physical training-- with training for the Lord? What about His preparations? I would take His game plan any day. And the best part is, I have chosen to accept His plan.

So this passage about "God choosing the foolish things of this world to shame the wise; He chooses the weak things to shame the strong; He chooses what is lowly to nullify what is not lowly, all so that we might not boast in anything except for Jesus Christ." Well, in quiet time tonight, I flipped to that passage exactly. Well, I first went to the concordance but my finger ended up across the title "God." Well, that is a bit generic, I think. That's like looking at one fish in the entire ocean, or one seed in the middle of a ripe watermelon. But a second later I'd moved it and it landed on 1 Corinthians 1:20. I began to read, obviously recognizing the verse. Then I kept reading and believe it or not, there was that passage that was in Francine Rivers's book. How did I happen to stumble across that twice in one evening? Obviously God was trying to tell me something. I read the verses again. Verse 20 itself almost seems contradictory: "Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" Jumping to verse 25, "For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than any man's strength." God chose on purpose that which appears unworthy, undeserving, not special, and gave it life as a result of His crazy love. His love-- not because of anything we have done, but simply because of who He is. "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord, says verse 31. We are to boast in our weaknesses, failures, and imperfections! Only then will we fall through the menacing trapdoor into His open arms. His strength, greater than any human strength will be for all eternity, will sustain us. Chapter 2 goes on to say that our faith should rest on God's power, not the wisdom of man. After all, there is no man who can fathom what the Lord has planned, who knows his future. All we know is that there is a marvelous plan in place; that we will be looked upon with love and safety.

We live in a world where social hierarchy creates oppression, which leads to everything we hear when we turn on the news. Oppression and inequality have led to bloodshed, violence, murder, and war. We have created divisions, just like plates, that pulls us from the Lord and all that He has planned. We need righteousness, holiness, and redemption in our lives. If, like 2 Corinthians 12:10 reads, we know that the strength of the Lord is carried on the lightest breeze to where we are, then we should be able to walk forward with the fullness and boldness and confidence of someone whose dependence is in the Lord.

I won't lie. It's hard to keep that dependence, especially when we consider ourselves capable of making our own decisions, leading our own lives. Just as easy as we can let another team pull the rope to win a game of Tug-O-War, we can snatch the rope back and change the game entirely. Sometimes, yes, it may be easier to call in sick, cancel that appointment, quit a job, or pack up and leave for another city in another country on another continent to escape pain and strife that comes in life. It may be easier to buy a pint of extremely unhealthy but rich-and-creamy ice cream, curl up on the sofa, and fall asleep or cry your eyes out to a sappy love film. It's easy to think that we're the only ones going through something miserable. It's easy to think that we don't have to do anything to change; like if we stare hard enough at the TV remote, it will magically float from the coffee table into our hands. Or if we sit and eat potato chips all day long at a desk job, we will become CEO's of the world's largest companies. But-- again-- that is NOT how life works.

Would we be willing to point at things and have them be eliminated because they are "bad" things, even if it meant having to deal with the consequences later? Those consequences would lead us all into even more sedentary lives than we are already famous for. We wouldn't have to work hard because we wouldn't care about progress. We wouldn't have to make efforts to be kind to people because they "probably don't like us anyways." We can venture on those self-discovery journeys without ever having to God who, ironically, created us, for His help. Yes. That would all be easier, but not worth it. I choose the good pain and heartache that results from seeking God's face over the simplicity of tossing Him aside-- taking Him for granted-- than anything else in this life.