Recently, I was in a room with a bunch of Christians who had gathered to wrestle with several culturally relevant issues. We were together for several hours, sometimes listening to designated speakers, sometimes participating in a Q & A, and sometimes just talking amongst ourselves.

At one point, a nicely groomed gentleman who looked to be my dad's age offered some comments about one of the issues at hand. But he also made a side comment something to the effect of, "My kids tell me I don't have an 'awkward filter,' meaning that I am oblivious to when I am making someone uncomfortable when I'm witnessing to them. But I can't help it! I'm a fool for God! I'm an idiot for Jesus! I'll go up to people in the mall and share the Lord with them, because I just have to!"

He was sharing this with the group, it seemed, because he was proud of his behavior. I expect he thought that we would all be impressed by his boldness.

I cringed.

This is not the kind of boldness I am impressed by.

I thought to myself as he was sharing, People like you are the reason I am sometimes ashamed of being known as a christian. I am not ashamed of Christ. I am not ashamed of the gospel. But I want non-believers to realize that you and I are not cut from the same cloth, even though we are both in Christ.

Later, though, I wondered whether I had been too hard on this brother. After all, didn't Paul the apostle call himself and the other apostles "fools for Christ?"

Of course, in Paul's context, he was referring to the way that he and the other apostles were suffering for Christ. "We are like those at the back of a procession, condemned to die... hungry and thirsty, dressed in rags, brutally treated, homeless..." Not exactly the picture of a guy in a mall thrusting a tract in someone's face in line at the Chick-Fil-A. No, I think Paul's point was that it might appear that they are fools, because they are enduring tremendous brutality that can only make sense to those whose hearts are enlighted to the beauty and value of following Jesus, no matter the cost. Paul called the gospel itself "foolishness" to those who are perishing, but we know that Paul did not think that the gospel actually was foolishness. It just appeared foolish to those who didn't get it. 

In other words, the gospel is not foolishness, but to those who don't get it, it seems to be foolishness. And those who follow Christ to the death are not fools, but they seem to be fools to those who don't get it.

I can't think of a scriputral mandate to actually be a fool (or idiot). In fact, a quick search through the Bible of the word "fool" indicates that being a fool is not what we are called to strive for. Instead, when it comes to helping others drink from the fountain of life (which is Jesus), a winsome approach seems a lot more plausible. If I'm totally honest, I have met some Christians who are just so wierd, I want nothing to do with the religion they practice or the god they serve. And we're supposedly on the same team!

It's hard not to judge this kind of thing. I know it's not my place, but c'mon... Still, I try to see things in another light. Perhaps they have a calling like the prophet Ezekiel or John the Baptist, I tell myself. Those guys must have looked pretty wierd. And they were totally following God's orders. He had divine, perfect, sovereign purposes for their wierdness.

This morning, I was still kind of thinking about this when I came across this quote during my devotions. The quote is from 17th century Church of England clergyman Jeremy Taylor, who said, "No degree of love can be imprudent, but the expressions may. We cannot love God too much, but we may proclaim it in an indecent manner."

Don't we want to love God in a decent manner? I know there are times to be undignified in our expression of love for God, but shouldn't those be A) rare and B) inspired?

Should foolishness be our aim? Shouldn't we rather endeavor to love the Lord with our hearts and our minds, modeling intelligence along with passion, thoughtfulness along with devotion, decency along with exuberance? Wouldn't that be a more winsome - and effective - approach to pointing people to Christ?

Anybody else out there ever had to wrestle with this one?