Wise Foolishness

Tomorrow is moving day, and it has finally begun to really sink in that this is really happening. So has that feeling of being totally overwhelmed, insufficient and out of our league! The child who has been most excited and supportive of this whole moving process had a meltdown last night, pleading with me to please unsign everything and stay here! This is the point when I become acutely aware of the "foolishness" of what we're about to do. Move our country kids down to Condo Central? Squeeze our 6-member family (plus the dog) into a smaller place (when we've often thought about moving elsewhere for a little extra room)? Sign a lease on an apartment with a rent that, despite being a "deal" for the neighbourhood, is shocking to just about everyone who knows what we're about to pay? And do all this so that we can get to know a bunch of strangers with the hope of seeing the gospel impact their lives? We must be crazy!

That's when I take comfort from 1 Corinthians 1: "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.' Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?  For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men."

We preach a gospel that is foolishness to the world, so why should we not expect many of the actions that accompany that gospel to appear foolish as well? Our hope is not in worldly affluence and success, in having a big yard and fresh air for the kids to play in, enjoying all the comforts of life in our dream home (or at least the closest we can come to it). Our hope is not in having neighbours who are all like us, with 4 kids and a dog (we may end up being the only ones in the neighbourhood!). It's not in having our best life now. So we'll do what is foolish, with all the wisdom that God provides, and rest in His strength and the hope of many saved to eternal life!

The kids and I have been reading a book by a mid-20th century missionary to Iran, and just finished it this Wednesday, shortly after I had my own mini-meltdown in the midst of all this stress. I was so encouraged by the closing words of this book, written by someone who gave up many things to see the gospel spread in a difficult land. They are simple words, ones we've heard many times, but they are worth reminding ourselves of again:

"When Jesus Christ is really living in our hearts, we want him to enter and live also in the hearts of our friends and in the hearts of all the people of the world. And we will do everything we can to make the good news of Christ known to everybody everywhere. It was for this that I went to Iran, and I am most grateful to God for calling me to serve him in that land as a missionary.
If God should tell you to go to some place where people to do not know Christ and to spend your life in making him known and showing his love to them, you should obey with joy. For I know of nothing that you could do with your life that would be better than that. 'For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish by have eternal life.'"

-William McElwee Miller (Tales of Persia: Missionary Stories from Islamic Iran)