Diving Deeper – The Right Kind of Fool

Greetings Dear Reader,

Last week a colleague listened to my conversation with a student who habitually lies to me and does not follow through.   The student was lying to me again and I knew it.  I called him on it.  I asked him why he lied to me.  The student said, “Because most of the time you believe me.”

I explained to the student that I did not believe him but that I was rather giving him another chance to do what is right because I believe he can.  I watched the student break and confess that he has never had someone really believe in him before.  After the student left with a promise to show up to class and to do his work the colleague approached me.

He confessed that he has been thinking for weeks that I was just a fool when it came to the way I deal with students.  I immediately responded that he is correct.  I explained that as someone who wishes to follow Christ I must be a fool but I must be the right kind of fool. 

Deeper faith requires that I look foolish to others at times.  It also requires that I be wise and gentle in my foolishness.  I must be kind and loving and appear at times to be unenlightened.  Then again, if the thing in the balance is another’s ability to see and follow Christ should I not be willing to appear a fool for that end?

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store."