The need for nonsense
Updated: Jan 3, 2022
Photo by Sindy Süßengut on Unsplash
I love the look on this cat's face (who, by the way, looks very much like our own beloved Leo).
Cats are good nonsense detectors. Sometimes they put up with our nonsense, and sometimes they simply turn away.
I've been thinking about nonsense all morning. Not too worry, though, it's my day off.
I'm in good company, it seems. Down through the ages others more wiser than I have thought about it, too.
I love this quote by Dr. Seuss. Serious Christians tend to be serious people. I don't know about you, but sometimes I need a reminder to lighten up. No matter how old we are, may we retain a playful spirit. A good laugh is medicine for the soul.
Montaigne was a wise man; he recognized that there is more than a little fool in all of us. What about you? The ability to laugh at yourself is one that we do well to cultivate.
What a strange thing to say? Or is it?
Lutherans love paradox; we do so because so much of life is a paradox. The same is true for our faith.
Have we been saved already? Yes and no.
If God is One, how can he be three?
The babe in Bethlehem held the world in his hands.
I don't know if France was a believer or not. It could well turn out that he was an atheist or agnostic and was referring to Christians. (Perhaps I'll check this out later; maybe not.)
It shouldn't surprise us in the least that many of our neighbors think Christians are the biggest fools on earth. It has long been this way.
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. For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”
What?! I will be looking this one up to see it's context.
Sometimes its those with an intellectual bent who need a reminder or two to eat a regular slice of humble pie.
The cowboy from Oklahoma may just be my favorite philosopher.
I think that part of the problem with the world's response to the pandemic falls at the feet of the experts. Rather than showing humility, far too often they spoke like oracles from on high. And, when things didn't pan out like they predicted, we lose confidence in the so-called experts.
I'll be researching to see if there is a story a behind Frost' prayer, to which I can only add a sincere Amen!