You can't Fool Mother Nature! Well you would probably need to be at least 40 years old to be someone who would remember the you can't fool mother nature video you can view on you tube at (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLrTPrp-fW8)but in essence it was a very catchy advertising campaign that launched margarine into the market over butter. But even though we often like the fruits of what we are fooled with as Mother Nature did with margarine, mother nature doesn't like it when she is fooled though and brings upon a storm when she realizes she has been fooled - and thats where the famous line from the 70's comes from, "its not nice to fool with mother nature."
How do you feel when you get fooled or look like a fool? Maybe its as innocent as a friend not telling you that you've got a bugger in your nose all through a business lunch, or toliet paper on your shoe, you are embarrassed. Or as we see right now in the mortgage crisis, lots of people were fooled. They bought homes thinking they were getting loans they could afford, and then found out later that they couldn't.....or worse thinking they were fixed rate, then they adjusted and they doubled, and now they not only don't have a home, they have bad credit, a ruined life - maybe they are homeless, they may feel like a fool. Some say they should have known better, they got greedy, and yes to a certain extent that is true; but some people were just plain swindled.
Maybe someone invested in a company, poured their life into it, and gave everything they had, but just this past month found out that all their investment was gone because it had been squandered by a boss who was not what he had portrayed himself to be? Hasn't that happened to you or a friend you know? Lehman Brothers, Enron, Wall Street, Main Street, nobody is immune - we are all surrounded by fools, and we all end up as fools at one time or another. Betrayed, abandoned, abused, denied, and needing the healing salve of a wounded savior who completely relates to us in it all.
The Bible has much to say about fools, foolishness, and the like. In the NT alone there are numerous references but I like how it re contextualizes foolishness for us in 1 Cor 3:18:
Do not deceive yourselves, anyone of you who thinks he is wise by the standards of this age he should become a "fool" so he may become wise. The wisdom of this world is foolishness in Gods sight, as it is written, He catches the wise in their craftiness.
These words definitely cause me to pause - don't be wise by this worlds standards - be a fool so you can become wise! Don't you feel that way sometimes you just can't beat those crafty people at their games? Well, you aren't supposed to! Let God deal with them, His justice is perfect and ours isn't. We aren't meant to rely upon our craftiness, it isn't wisdom.
In Ephesians it says, "Don't be foolish but understand what the Lords will is" so we must always be looking for what the Lords will is, and not conform to the worlds standards for wisdom. God sees right through us and to our heart and motivation.
All of the economic meltdowns, negative politics, social nightmares, and betrayals piled up on after another should cause us to stop and take a moment not to run the other way from God, but to realize that its time to do some idol smashing and fool discovering in our lives. This is a regular part of our lives this side of heaven. I hate to say it but our days between now and the end of our time here on earth are likely to be filled with more sweetness and more bitterness - as we walk this road Jesus will be simply a sojourner but our ever present help in a time of need....that is what He is supposed to be.
May we become fools who seek after God and His kingdom not the riches of this world, may we be wise in the ways that God wants us to be, may we be hungry to know Gods will in our lives, and may we experience His manifest presence in our lives.
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