Fool for Love

“I’m a fool for Christ.
Whose fool are you?”

I think this saying is based on 1 Cor. 4:10, but don’t hold me to that (John says he believes it was John Wimber who said it).  The Apostle Paul mentions fool and foolishness a few times, because I think that he was intimately acquainted with being on the receiving end of those terms.  I’m thinking about this saying in light of John’s post yesterday.

What a gift that post was!  It so illuminated how meticulously our Father corners us with His love.  I was able to see so clearly that God comes for us where we love, because that is where we’re vulnerable.  What (and whom) I love is the chink in my armor.  It is the point of my heart’s exposure.  I can be easily reached through my loves, and God knows it.

I am vulnerable where I love, and I’m willing to be foolish to get what I love.  That’s why romantic movies tend to have some outlandishly foolish gesture to win the love of “the one.”  It’s the ultimate vulnerability to put our dignity and reputation on the line.  We are fools in love – and in pursuit of love.  It’s a universal, human condition!

For love, we will do amazing and amazingly stupid things.  Everything pales in comparison to what we want, and we become singularly focused on the object of our affection.  I think that’s why love is the most liberating and destructive force in the universe.  And I’m beginning to wonder if that’s why God will NOT allow us to fixate unchecked on anything or anyone but Him.  He knows the deadly lengths we’ll travel to be a fool for love, and no amount of reason or logic can dissuade us.

I was foolish for cigarettes.  I knew all the dangers of smoking – and I didn’t care.  But in the end, I loved Jesus more and that’s what saved me.  It wasn’t some emotional la-la love, and it wasn’t because I’m such a good and loving person.  I chose the forever-Love, because the forever-Love chose me.

For years God sent His perfect love into my heart through the cigarettes’ door.  I was so sure that I knew exactly what He thought of my smoking, and how deeply He despised me for it.  I imagined Him turning away from me in perpetual disappointment every time I lit up.  Instead, He wrapped His arms around me, smokes and all, and said, “Mine.”  And He kept saying it until I heard Him – and believed Him.  And when I believed that His love was not conditional like mine, then He held out His hand for my cigarettes and asked me to let go.

I will be a fool for something or someone.  I will!  It’s how God made me.  And I would much prefer to be a fool for the sake of Eternal Love.  May God give me – and all of us! – such love for Him that all else pales in comparison!

The fool has said in his heart,
“There is no God.”
Psalm 14:1