Sorry Charlie
Paul reminds us that we are not so special by human standards.
The message about the cross is foolishness 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, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength. Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." - 1 Corinthians 1:18-31
Remember Charlie the Tuna?
That was a strange commercial. Charlie, a tuna, thought he could be chosen by Star-Kist if he showed that he had good taste.
He tried hard to be picked, which would have turned out bad for him in the end. He would have wound up in the can, literally.
But what Charlie signifies for us is the desire to be chosen.
Like Charlie, feigning good taste, we want God to see us a worthy, wise and able, good choices.
God, however, has a different agenda. He chooses based on criteria we don't always see. It is not how smart we are that gets us on His radar, but our inner character.
We are chosen for what we are inside, not how we appear to the world.
Like Charlie, being chosen may have its downside as well as its benefits. We may find ourselves challenged and hated by the world.
But in the end, all will work out better for us. We just have to believe.
And it is good to know, we don't have to work so hard to make ourselves something we aren't.
More to come...