God overlooked what everyone else saw as flaws
Daily Scripture
1 Corinthians 1:21-30
21 In God’s wisdom, he determined that the world wouldn’t come to know him through its wisdom. Instead, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of preaching. 22 Jews ask for signs, and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, which is a scandal to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. 24 But to those who are called—both Jews and Greeks—Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom. 25 This is because the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
26 Look at your situation when you were called, brothers and sisters! By ordinary human standards not many were wise, not many were powerful, not many were from the upper class. 27 But God chose what the world considers foolish to shame the wise. God chose what the world considers weak to shame the strong. 28 And God chose what the world considers low-class and low-life—what is considered to be nothing—to reduce what is considered to be something to nothing. 29 So no human being can brag in God’s presence. 30 It is because of God that you are in Christ Jesus. He became wisdom from God for us. This means that he made us righteous and holy, and he delivered us.
Daily Reflection & Prayer
Seeing baby Rudolph’s bright red nose, Mrs. Donner said, “We’ll simply have to overlook it.” But Donner asked, “How can you overlook that? His beak blinks like a blinking beacon.” * Well, the gifted apostle Paul knew most Greeks and Romans, especially among the elite, found most of his converts, and all of his faith in a crucified rabbi, absurd. That didn’t stop him. He knew God not only overlooked the limits of those “unimpressive” believers, but found world changing value in them.
- A friend of Donald Miller told him, “There is this part of me that wants to believe….I feel as though I need to believe….But it is all so completely stupid.” ** In one way, it’s true—human wisdom simply wouldn’t invent a God who, in Jesus, reversed so many of our broken world’s values. What are some ways the “foolishness of God” has changed your world and you for the better?
- At The Church of the Resurrection, asking tough questions is okay, even encouraged. We honor the reality that faith runs much deeper than a few pious clichés. On your spiritual journey, what are some of the toughest questions you’ve dealt with, or are still wrestling with? What has helped you learn to trust God in areas that remain mysterious while not “checking your brain at the door”?
Prayer
Lord God, please free me at those times when my mind tries to get in the way of my heart, when I ache to love and serve you even if I can’t answer all the questions. Amen.
GPS Insights
Ashley Morgan-Kirk
Ashley serves as the Online Connection and Care Pastor at Resurrection. After seven years of higher ed in religion, she finally understands that she can't figure out God (no matter how hard she tries). She’s leaning into the challenge to move from a thinking-based faith to loving God with both her head and heart.
So much of our world gives us the message to fix our flaws, or to hide them. Neither lead to the beautiful realization that no one is perfect–that everyone has flaws. God goes even further to take our flaws and use them to change the world. I wonder how much you accept that God overlooks your flaws? Or even, how much do you accept that God can find world changing value in them?
I’ve spent countless hours imagining and making things, mostly in ceramics studios. In college when I was prepping for a show, I had a piece that kept cracking and breaking. I was so frustrated because it was not turning out the way I had planned. For weeks I wrestled with it, repairing and remaking it, until I realized that although it didn’t turn out as I planned, it was beautiful within its brokenness. It was the most well-received piece in the show and went on to inspire a whole other set of broken pieces, plus a new policy of accepting flaws as opportunities to find even more beauty.
Years later someone gave me a card with a cracked clay pot on the front. Gold had been used to fill in each of the cracks, and it said: “In Japan, broken objects are often repaired with gold. The flaw is seen as a unique piece of the object’s history, which adds to its beauty. Consider this when you feel broken.” I framed the card, and it hangs on the wall in my home office. When I look at it and consider my life, I see God as the gold filling in each of the cracks. God has always taken what I’d rather fix, hide, or set aside, and shown beauty through it.
I know this isn’t true just for my life, but for yours too. God can find world changing value in what you might rather fix, change, or hide. May today be a day where you find God showing beauty through your flaws.
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Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
References
* “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer Quotes.” Quotes.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2022. Web. 21 Nov. 2022. https://www.quotes.net/movies/rudolph,_the_red-nosed_reindeer_quotes_9778.
