Have you ever felt foolish? Since it was April Fools this week, I got to thinking about foolish things I’ve done. When I was a young mom living in the Pacific Northwest, I was extremely frustrated with slugs eating my garden. I was desperate to find an effective slug control method. Some people recommended putting beer in shallow containers in the garden, but I didn’t have beer. Then I read that ground up slugs sprayed on your flowers worked to deter slugs. Well, I did have plenty of slugs to make the repellent. I was squimish about blending slugs in my blender, so I bought a 50 cent blender at a garage sale and went to work collecting slugs. In no time, I had a half a blnder full to which I added some water and soon I had slug slurry. I put it in a spray bottle and carefully sprayed all my plants on top of the leaves and even underneath as best I could. “There, my garden is protected!” I thought triumphantly. A few hours later it began to pour down rain and it occurred to me that I now had a part time job spraying my plants after every rain and collecting more slugs to make slurry. After a few days I decided to resign from my job. At least I had made a dent in the slug population by collecting them for slurry!
We all could make a list of silly things we’ve done. Buying something that couldn’t possibly do all the ad claimed, thinking you could do it all, expecting another person to do it all, or thinking that some thing or someone would make you happy.
We can avoid being foolish by heeding the warnings of Scripture. Moses addressed God’s people just before he died reminding them who God is. Because God made us, he knows what is best for us. Therefore, we should obey him for our own good:
“to their shame they are a warped and crooked generation.
Is this the way you repay the Lord,
you foolish and unwise people?
Is he not your Father, your Creator,
    who made you and formed you?” Deuteronomy 32:6

Later, the prophet Samuel declared that if King Saul had only obeyed God, he would have been rewarded. Obedience always pays.
“You have done a foolish thing,” Samuel said. “You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. 1 Samuel 13:13

We all fail to completely obey God, but there is room to change our mind and return to God by pleading for his mercy.

“David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, Lord, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.” 2 Samuel 24:10

We can be foolish by going through the motions of being religious, but not humbly obeying his desires as recorded in Scripture. We can hold onto human rules for worshiping God and feel we’re wise. But those human ideas are ‘add-ons’ and are destined to perish. Only God’s holy Word will remain. This takes discernment to see the difference between human rules and God’s rule over us. Obeying rules made up by people isn’t our obligation. They make us feel good, but they can’t make us good. For instance, I grew up in a conservative church where dancing and alcohol were taboo. It’s understandable that we young people were told not to drink. But as an adult, I recognized that Scripture doesn’t forbid alcohol, but it clearly forbids getting drunk. Dancing isn’t forbidden, but lust is. Manmade rules don’t get to the core of our issues, they just make it easy to become proud by checking off the boxes.

“The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
 but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is based on merely human rules they have been taught.
Therefore once more I will astound these people
with wonder upon wonder;
the wisdom of the wise will perish,
the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.” Isaiah 29:13-14

During this season of Passover and Easter, we are faced with the reality that humans cannot save themselves. No matter how wise, intelligent, or religious we are, God has to intervene. And he often does so in ways that go against our human understanding. The Egyptians had their own gods they had made up and didn’t honor the one true Creator God. Even the Hebrews questioned God’s leader, Moses, until God showed up in ways that defied human reason. A death angel?! A sea parted?! An army drowned?!

Good Friday is the epic non-sensical event of human history. The only truly innocent Man who ever lived willingly died for the guilty. The One who completely obeyed God sacrificed himself for those who willfully disobeyed.

“The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. As the Scriptures say,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise
and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.” (Isaiah 29:14)
So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.
But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.” 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Let’s search our hearts. Do I desire to please God and obey only his rules? Am I relying on his intervention in Jesus to bring me close to him? Or am I smugly doing the best I can according to me or the religious group I’m affiliated with?