I’m happy to be a fool for Christ; whose fool are you?

When people find out that I’m a minister, it seems to provoke one of about four reactions, one of which is that people start reviewing what they’ve said to me, in case they’ve said anything rude – but another is that they spend the next half hour telling me why they won’t believe in God.

One said – ‘You’re a fool if you believe in anything that you can’t see!’ If you dissect a dead body, you can’t find love, compassion or a person’s individual character. Such things are difficult to prove empirically, but without these qualities life is barren if not impossible.

King David, who wrote Psalm 14 has a different idea – he says: ‘The fool says in his heart, “There is no God”. St Paul says that ‘since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse’ (Romans 1:20). All the proof we need of the existence and nature of God, is to be plainly seen in the splendour and the intricacy of the natural world. Best of all, God is not an abstract concept, rather a personal being – He can be known.

This year, April is also the month of Easter and on the night before His horrific death on Good Friday, Jesus said that He came to bring eternal life to those who put their faith in Him. He said: ‘Now this is eternal life: that people may know (personally) the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent’ (John 17:3). The heart of Christianity is a living relationship with the only true God who we can know personally.

Easter is the celebration of life – eternal life, knowing the Living God, not just believing, but knowing. That atheist said I was fool if I believed in something that I can’t see – I may not see, but I know Him and the difference God makes to my life is more than I could explain.

And if that makes me a fool, then I’m more than happy to be a fool for Christ – whose fool are you?