The Smart Thing

Oftentimes, the smart thing is not the right thing. Smart usually incorporates safety, surety, repeatable, foreseeable, logical.... all good. But... aren't there times in our lives where we are called to do something that others would not consider "smart"? How about the guy that saved the kid from the car only to be run over by said car? Was that smart? How about the Son of God choosing to die for us? Couldn't He do more and have more influence if He had lived longer? And why did He come as a commoner? Wouldn't it have been smarter to come as a king?

The smart person is sometimes the opposite of being risky. Risk is usually "balanced". Don't risk to much our you could lose it all! Jesus Himself says in Matthew 10:39 "Whoever finds hi life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" NIV.

Today Dwight talked to us about jumping off the cliff. His example was basically, if God tells you to do something, do it - even if it sounds stupid to others and even you! So how do you know if God tells you to do something? We'll look at this in a future blog. For right now, the thought is to LISTEN for God, be WILLING to do what He says, and be immediately OBEDIENT.

1 Corinthians 1:18 to 2:16 talk about wisdom. What is a smart move in God's eyes? It is not the same as what humans think of as smart. 1 Corinthians 1:25 says "For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength." This is comforting to me because when I feel God calling me to do something I don't want to do or think is a stupid idea and I hesitate doing it - (I mean, this couldn't be from God because it is just ludicrous! , Right?) - it assures me that even in my weakness, maybe because of it, God will make it work for His strength!

For those that have been to church for any length of time have probably picked some of this message up. The response? "Yeah, that's cool but how do you actually do that?" I know because that has been my response. In the spirit of "Sharing Life and Faith Together", let's share how you have responded in faith to God's voice even when others or you have thought it was not smart. Let's start learning how to react to a situation that is smart in God's eyes... not ours!