Foolishness?

It was a crisp autumn afternoon and I was on my weekly outing to distribute a message of hope to the mailboxes of the French town across the valley from where we lived. In France there is no one "right" method of getting a hearing for the gospel so we would sow the seed in many ways. One that I particularly enjoyed was to write and publish my own tracts in which I would take a story or current event and use it to build a bridge to the gospel. I found that if well written, people would read them and some would actually respond with a request for a Bible or further contact.

I had gone up one side of a narrow cobblestone street and was coming back down the other when I came to a spot where I discovered one of my tracts torn in a hundred pieces and scattered on the street. It was a rather obvious attempt by the reader to express his utter disdain for what he considered a foolish message. This was certainly not the first time I had suffered rejection in this land where many hopeless philosophies of men hold sway over the French mind. But it was a first for seeing one of my tracts meet with such a public fate.

More significant, however, than the angry response of the reader that day, was the emotion that unexpectedly welled up in my heart as I looked at the shredded paper. It took me by surprise for it is not what one might expect.

 A sense of deep joy settled over my heart as the words of Paul to the Corinthians invaded the moment: "For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God!" (I Corinthians 1:18).

It was as if God were saying to me: "Don't worry about it. This is exactly what I said would happen when some hear the message of the cross. You can be happy knowing that you made My message clear enough for him to make a choice."

It was a good reminder to me that day. We would all do well to remember that the goal of sharing the gospel is not that all may believe, for God has already told us that this will not happen.

Rather, the goal is to make it so clear that people are moved to respond, whether by shredding it or embracing it. It was the late missionary martyr, Jim Elliot who once wrote: "Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me. "


Dale Losch
CrossWorld President