Holy Folly

I'm about to finish a book by Os Guinness entitled 'The Call'. It has been a fantastic encouragement to me in my walk with Christ. I encourage all of you to read it! Here are some words that really hit me tonight while I was reading...
"Brethren, the tears of Christ overwhelm me with shame and fear and sorrow. I was playing out of doors in the street, while sentence of death was being passed upon me in the privacy of the royal council chamber. But the King's only-begotten son heard of it. And what did he do? He went forth from the palace, put off his diadem, covered himself with sackcloth, strewed ashes on his head, bared his feet, and wept and lamented because his poor slave was condemned to death. I meet him unexpectedly in this sad condition. I am astonished at the woeful change in him and inquire the cause. He tells me the whole story. What am I to do now? Shall I continue to play and make a mockery of his tears? Surely I am insane and devoid of reason if I do not follow him and unite my tears with his." - a sermon by Bernard of Clairvaux
"...Foolbearing is essential to calling because it positions us unmistakably before the world as a counterculture, antithetical to the world's very being. The church has always maintained a necessary tension between a world-affirming stance and a world-denying stance. Due to its extraordinary power, the modern world has swung the balance heavily toward the former. Hardly any Christians are world-denying these days... ...On every side we see Christians pursuing the rage for relevance, whether seeking respect of the 'cultured despisers' of the gospel, reaching out to the contemporary 'unchurched' with a ' user friendly' gospel, or just enjoying the comforts of the age. For many believers the Christian life is now the good life: It simply 'goes better with Jesus' even if there is no God and no Resurrection. The result is a series of adaptions of the Christian faith to modern man that are a capitulation with few rivals in two thousand years.
Against such attempts the holy fools stand as a weeping road block. In the gospel there is an antithesis to the world that we dare not relax, a cost to discipleship that we cannot waive, a challenge to obedience that we must not conceal, and a scandal to faith that we should never airbrush away. If loyalty to those truths puts us beyond the pale, so be it. Today's worldly wisdom that pronounces us mad will soon be tomorrow's outmoded theory. So long as our folly is truly the gospel and not our own delusion as simpletons, we will not be 'ignorantly ignorant' or 'unwisely unwise' but humble students in the school of Christ... ...Holy folly is a counter cultural stance. We are 'fools of love' in a relationship to Jesus, but in relation to the powers that be, we are radical insurrectionists."


In every page of this book I find a new challenge. It brings this challenge by the gospel in every minute of everyday and every subject of life to light in our present culture. Jesus' call becomes larger to me everyday as I realize the enormity and totality of the life of which I am to sacrifice to the cross in order to gain true salvation. Holy Spirit help me.