Beyond Wisdom

April 16, 2019

“The foolish things of the world God chose in order that he might put to shame the wise, and the weak things of the world God chose in order that he might put to shame the strong, and the insignificant of the world, and the despised, God chose, the things that are not, in order that he might abolish the things that are, so that all flesh may not boast before God. But from him you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom to us from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “The one who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.”” —1 Corinthians 1:27-31 LEB

Pastors are a strange lot. Our “field of expertise” is often pretty vague. Most of us aren’t trained in psychotherapy, we don’t have the technical knowledge of a pharmacist or surgeon, We aren’t trained in law, business, martial arts, culinary, masonry, or mechanical skills. We are taught to preach, often marginally; we’re thrust into ecclesiastical systems that are often far more complex than we imagine. Family, sociological, psychological, and spiritual problems are where we spend our lives, and whether or not we admit it, we are most often over our heads. The good news is, once you’re in over your head, it doesn’t matter how deep it gets. To quote Nemo, we just keep swimming.

Linda and I just finished watching a documentary on the life of Billy Graham. For more than sixty years, he has been in the public eye. Countless observers, pundits, and experts have pondered on the amazing influence this man has had all around the world. Love him or hate him, they had to deal with him, and often mused publicly about the reason for his success. It is simple. He had but one message, and he never deviated from it: “God loves you, Jesus Christ died for you, and if you trust in him, he will save you.” Graham never spoke of what we can do to make the world a better place; he spoke of what Jesus Christ did to make us better people.

Whenever I am tempted to believe success depends on my wisdom, or that my failures and shortcomings will thwart God’s purposes, these verses from St. Paul come to mind. God uses the unusable, and it is Christ’s righteousness, sanctification, and redemption—not my own—that saves the day. God can use whatever wisdom and learning I have managed to accumulate (after all, it is his anyway), but he never needs it. The best I can do in any situation is to help people see Jesus in it. Too often, I offer advice, make suggestions, pontificate, but no amount of counseling or even preaching is ever effective if it doesn’t point people to Jesus. I am eternally thankful that one Sunday evening more than fifty years ago, someone loved me enough to tell me about Jesus. I am thankful that over the years, whenever I strayed from that simple message and began speaking my own wisdom, depending on my own strength, God has been faithful to call me back, straighten me out, and set me again upon the right path. It is far better than I could ever deserve.