Overwhelmed

Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? . . . For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

1 CORINTHIANS 1:20, 25

DO YOU EVER FEEL OVERWHELMED WITH THE DEMANDS AND skills parenting requires of you?

I hope so.

Johann Christoph Arnold wisely wrote, “Only the adult who stands like a child before the grace of God is fit to raise a child.”^a

In one of God’s most brilliant ironies, he uses the process of raising children to become adults to help adults become more like children. Remember, Jesus said we must become like children to enter the kingdom of God. Children often feel overwhelmed, but in our arrogance as adults, we start to think we have everything figured out—until God in his mercy sends us children, and we realize how much wisdom, character, patience, understanding, and godliness we lack.

Little children have to ask when they want a drink, when they want to eat, when they want to get out of bed, when they want to play a game. They are always asking, aren’t they? And God wants us to ask as well. He delights in our dependence and relishes our reliance.

Experienced spiritual directors recognize there is a season when a new believer’s infatuation with the faith often morphs into arrogance of the faith. At first we feel overwhelmed by all that Christianity is; then one day we wake up and think we have it all figured out and everybody else should just get on board and follow us. We need to pass through this arrogance into a more mature disposition—one referenced by Paul:

When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. (1 Corinthians 2:1–3)

Let’s allow our children to lift us up by first taking us down a notch or two. It is spiritually enriching to be humbled, to be reminded of our need for God’s power, God’s wisdom, God’s patience, God’s direction, God’s provision, and to know that on our own we just don’t have what it takes. When we get pushed past the edges of our natural strength, only to fall into the supernatural provision of God’s power, then we’ve come full circle as believers: “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power” (1 Corinthians 2:4–5).

Our natural human pride pushes us into independence and the mind-set that we have it all figured out. This week, let God use your children to place you back into the process of humble listener, questioner, and seeker. Let the myriad demands of parenting remind us that without God’s provision, we have no hope. We need to exchange our own wisdom for his.

Have you grown proud? Have you become independent? Do you sometimes pass an entire day, or maybe even a full week, without honestly and earnestly seeking God’s infilling power and superior wisdom? When did you last throw yourself before the Lord and confess, “Without you, I have nothing to give these children”?

If you can’t remember, why not start today?

Heavenly Father, remind us that humble dependence is a form of worship, an acknowledgement that you want to equip us. We know that the more we are dependent on you, the more we will have an impact on others. In Jesus’ name, amen.