Foolishness.

Over the July 4th weekend I got to talk to both of my parents about my faith in different ways. In many ways it was God answering my prayer to be more bold about my faith, especially in ways that I haven't been. But sadly, after talking (particularly to my dad, which was more of me asking him about what he thought and just trying to start a very long conversation about spirituality/religion/Christianity,) to my parents, I further understood how much of the world really thinks about both religion overall and Christianity.

1 Corinthians 1:18 says "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

And after me telling my mother the message of the Gospel, and hearing my father talk about why he walked away from Christianity, from God... I felt pretty useless. Not hopeless, but useless; and this passage says it pretty clearly. Why would someone believe in something that is foolishness to them?? FOOLISHNESS!!! That's like someone coming up and telling me that cows can fly. Just plain silly. Imagine that. The only truth, the only grace that can save us, the message of the cross itself, is foolishness to the rest of the world.

Only God can change the heart of my parents, or anyone who do not know the true love of God. I can argue with them, reason, give them books, tell them how much God loves them, that He would send his ONLY son to die for us... and it would do nothing if the Holy Spirit did not move in their hearts.

There are a lot of people who are in desperate need of Jesus and have absolutely NO idea. The thought itself seems silly.

I pray for boldness not just in sharing the Gospel, but in loving. Radical, unsettling, unstoppable, love. Love that people would see comes from something that is not from me. And I pray that God will soften our hearts to His love, His sacrifice, His Son... because even if the world thinks that it's just a tease, it is so, so, so, so much greater than anything we could dream of. Anything.


edit/addition: even better...
1 Corinthians 1:25 - "For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength."
crazy.