As he was making his defense this way, Festus exclaimed in a loud voice, “You’re out of your mind, Paul! Too much study is driving you mad!” But Paul replied, “I’m not out of my mind, most excellent Festus. On the contrary, I’m speaking words of truth and good judgment. (Acts 26:24-25, HCSB)
Sometimes I think I’m just like Paul, for I, too, have been called crazy. Unlike Paul, it’s never been said that I was so smart that it drove me crazy. So maybe we’re not alike after all…
Anyway, sometimes folks think we Christians are crazy because we worship a God we’ve never seen before. We’ve not touched, heard, tasted of him, either. And in a world where our senses measure everything, going outside of senses doesn’t…well, make sense. We describe God with our senses, but really these are most often metaphors and not literal descriptions. We serve an invisible God. As Isaiah reminds us: Yes, You are a God who hides Himself, God of Israel, Savior. (Isaiah 45:15, HCSB)
So we follow a God we can’t see, and obey him in doing things that don’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense to turn the other cheek or pray for those who persecute us. It doesn’t make sense in a world of limited resources to put the needs of others before our own. It doesn’t make sense in a world where you get ahead by acclaim to humble ourselves and defer praise. It doesn’t make sense to give 10% of our finances to the God we’ve never seen. I could probably go on…
Maybe we are mad… After all, Paul said the world considers us foolish (1 Cor. 1:27). Nevertheless, we’re called to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7). It doesn’t mean we’re crazy, it means we’re walking a different path than the sensual one: However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”— but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. (1 Corinthians 2:9-10, NIV).
So, keep walking in faith – and remember: …the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. (1 Corinthians 1:25, NIV)
