Utter Foolishness

As I've been reading through In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, I've been challenged, encouraged and definitely had  a lot of reflection on why we aren't more courageous, daring and creative. Then yesterday, I read this: "I believe that somewhare deep down inside all of us there is a primal longing to do something crazy for God."

And this: "Noah looked foolish building an ark in the desert. Sarah looked foolish buying maternity clothes at ninety. The Israelites looked foolish marching around Jericho blowing trumpets. David looked foolish attacking Goliath with a slingshot. Benaiah looked foolish chasing a lion. The wise men looked foolish following yonder star. Peter looked foolish stepping out of the boat in the middle of the lake. And Jesus looked foolish hanging half-naked on the cross."
"But that's the essence of faith. And the results speak for themselves."

Am I willing to look foolish on behalf of my God? Hmmm...good question!

I have before. There are a few very specific times when I know I looked foolish during worship. In fact, one of my favorite stories to tell is that a few months ago some water went down the wrong way and as I was choking in the kitchen I raised both my hands to catch my breath and stop gagging. (old trick I learned from my Dad!) But when the episode was over, Noah said, "I didn't even know you were choking...I just thought you were praising God!" I LOVE that I'm evidently foolish during worship often enough that he just thought this was a normal thing for me to do!

But am I willing to do the things (outside of a worship service) that God is calling me to that will make me look absolutely foolish in the eyes of man?

I know this is not just a passing thought for me...I am truly being challenged. I went to bed with this on my mind last night because I'd just read the above passages to Dale. Then this morning, my youngest turns on a VeggieTales to watch and guess which one it was...Josh and the Big Wall

I can't think of anything more foolish than trying to knock down a wall by simple walking around it seven days in a row. But as I heard the kids watching the movie, God was putting this whole idea of foolishness together for me. I now had a specific lesson I wanted to share with the kids during our Bible and prayer time this morning. They'd watched the video of Josh, so they had a visual reference (even though the real people of Jericho didn't toss slushies at the Israelites!) and I read a few passages and gave them some background out of In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day, but there was one more video I wanted them to watch.

A friend recently posted this on her Facebook page. Watch it! You'll be amazed.

In our culture, there are a lot of people that could not imagine anything more foolish than giving up a college education and going to serve in Uganda teaching kindergarten. Even more crazy than that is being only 21 years old and having 14 daughters to care for. I'm teary just thinking about the massive amount of faith this would take. I love how Katie makes it sound so simple though. (I'm paraphrasing) 'The Bible says to love others as we love ourselves. Well...my self wouldn't want to be hungry, so I don't want anyone else to be hungry.'

Maybe I should trade the word foolish for simple-minded, huh?

Batterson goes on to talk about child-like faith and how Jesus told us that we should come to Him as little children. All you have to do is go sit at a playground for a few hours to see some pretty daring, creative and yes, foolish behavior.

So what's He calling you to do that is utter foolishness? For us, I'm not sure. I think living, by choice, at two times below the poverty level for a family of six and giving 10-25% of that away is just a start. In fact, go back over that list above that's from this book...Noah, Sarah, Joshua, David, Benaiah, the wise men, Peter, Jesus. Yep, I'd say we have a long way to go before we're anywhere near as foolish as they were.

But I need to be ready. If He says, "Will you be a fool for Me, Angela?" I want to be able to respond swiftly with a wholehearted, "I will!"

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