Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by
this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise. For
the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As the Scriptures say,
“He traps the wise
in the snare of their own cleverness.”
in the snare of their own cleverness.”
And again,
“The Lord knows the
thoughts of the wise;
he knows they are worthless.” 1 Corinthians 3:18-20
he knows they are worthless.” 1 Corinthians 3:18-20
We all work hard to be successful not only at work but also
in our relationships and faith. Most
times, we are, but every so often, we are not.
Some of us have minor slip ups, but other times, we fail. Miserably.
I thought about the times that I failed.
I failed to study well enough for a test and suffered mightily getting a
poor grade. There were times that I was
not a good husband to my adoring wife, and I hurt her and in essence myself. My performance at work had been substandard
before, and yes, I had lost a job for it.
In most of these instances, I can now see how foolish I was. It would have been so easy to turn right, and
yet, I managed to turn left. Yet as I reflect
on those failures, I am incredibly thankful to God for them. The one poor grade drove me to perform better
and get better final grades. My pleas
for forgiveness and the tears my wife and me shared made me so much better as a
husband. And my failures at work not
only helped me become better but also allowed me to be a relied upon resource
to others who also suffered failure. It
reminded me of a song when I was a kid.
The chorus went:
Whoa-whoa, fools rush in
Anywhere, anywhere
Wise men will never go
But a wise man will never fall in love
He will never learn
What a fool already knows - Peabo Bryson, ‘A Fool Already Knows’
Anywhere, anywhere
Wise men will never go
But a wise man will never fall in love
He will never learn
What a fool already knows - Peabo Bryson, ‘A Fool Already Knows’
God uses our mistakes to make us even better disciples of
Christ. We think of the most intelligent
people we know, and state, “Wow! She is
so smart,” or, “He always seems to know the answer.” While there is a great deal of wisdom within
them, ask them about a failure they have had and what they learned from
it. If they do not have a story like
this, they are the people Paul is warning us about in today’s verses. I remember doing lent for years only to fail
each year. However, one year I managed
to put the failures behind me, and successfully completed it. The closeness it brought me to God was
incredible because I had put Him before myself for an extended period. It was not anything special that I did
different. What I remembered was the
failures when I turned left, and then I fought hard to turn right. The purpose of Paul’s words was not to say understanding
the world is wrong. It meant to apply
worldly logic to understand God is indeed foolish. Along those lines, Godly wisdom means to rely
on His word and to apply it to the world.
To the world, it will sound foolish, but being a fool for serving God is
far better than being wise and serving the wrong Master, which in many cases is
ourselves. Why? God guides us through our mistakes, and we
can better see the end result of the wrong path. After all, Jesus Christ is the only person
that was ever perfect.
True wisdom is knowing who God is and trusting what He
says. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the
Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his
will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” That would not make sense to a person who
relies on his or her own judgment, but if they knew like we knew, it makes
perfect sense. He knows what is right,
and has never led us astray. Let us
apply the wisdom of God trusting Him in all we do. What has God taught you through your
mistakes? How can you trust Him more in
your decisions? My prayer is that we can
see the wisdom in our failures to know what a fool already knows. Amen.
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