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Salt. Light. A wooden cross. A trembling voice. An untied rope. A song of praise.

These are humble signs of God's initiative in our world.

Open our eyes, Lord, that we may see.

Listen

When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I didn’t come preaching God’s secrets to you like I was an expert in speech or wisdom. I had made up my mind not to think about anything while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and to preach him as crucified. I stood in front of you with weakness, fear, and a lot of shaking. My message and my preaching weren’t presented with convincing wise words but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power. I did this so that your faith might not depend on the wisdom of people but on the power of God.

1 Corinthians 2:1-5

Think

Unlike the proud persecutor of Christians he was before his conversion on the road to Damascus, Saint Paul here describes how he intentionally humbled himself so that God’s power would be made known to the people of the Church of Corinth.

Just think of it: Paul heard the voice and saw the light of our Lord with his own eyes which, even though blinded, eventually saw again after a miraculous healing. For me, that makes Paul seem like the best expert witness imaginable. This, however, is a worldly and not Godly approach.

Paul knows that it is his honest response, his “weakness, fear” and “shaking,” his preaching of Jesus Christ, crucified, that must be known so that the people could put their faith in God and not in him. Paul selflessly gives the glory to God and, in so doing, gives us an example of what being a disciple really looks like: a humble follower who thinks nothing of himself and only of his Lord Jesus Christ.

Sarah H. Boatwright

Pray

Lord, thank you for your saints and disciples. Help me to imitate them by loving you more than myself. Amen.

Go

Our highest activity must be response, not initiative.

C.S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain (1940)

What is your response to God today?