1 Corinthians 3:18
Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.
The paradox of the cross is that the way we normally think must be reversed. We are engrained from the earliest days to fend and fight for ourselves, to achieve, the strongest survive. To get ahead in the world, we need the best education, the best body, the best connections, the best clothing, the best cars and houses, and so on. The irony of being a believer is that these things do not count when it comes to God’s kingdom. Some of them may have purpose in making life comfortable but they do not promote us to higher places in the kingdom. Jesus taught that the greatest will be least and the least will be the greatest, the first last, and the last first (Matthew 19:30). This is good news because it tells me that I don’t need to do or be anything special for God to love me and have a plan for me. I just need to come to God in humility, casting my weak, sinful, and cracked self at his mercy and I will be healed (Isaiah 55:7). We have to come to a place that we realize that in our own wisdom and strength, we but fools before God. God wants us to come in humble worship and trust ourselves into his care.
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