the foolish life

This morning I had a somewhat foolish thought. For a brief moment I thought about quitting my job, selling my house, and buying one of these bike trailers. Without a job or a house I’d be free to just wander around the country by bike.

I think it’s a really smart and well designed trailer. The top portion folds out into a tent. There are stabilizers underneath the trailer for leveling the tent on uneven ground. Underneath the tent portion is a decent sized storage area. It looks like I could store weeks worth of food and gear in there.

Last year I went on a crazy bike trip. I chalk it up as my last bit of youthful foolishness (I was still in my 20s at the time…) There were some hard days and some rough riding, but in the end it was an incredible experience, and I’m truly glad that I did it. All I had was my bicycle and four panniers full of gear and food, and I rode through a lot of wet and cold weather, but for some reason I was happy.

Quitting my job and selling my house and traveling around on a bike sounds like a foolish life decision. But you know what? I really like biking and I really like camping. I don’t hate my job, but I can’t honestly say that I really like my job either. In the end it’s really just a means for me to have money to go biking, camping, and traveling.

In small group today we finished the book we’ve been studying, Tim Keller’s “King’s Cross.” It finishes with the resurrection of Christ. Christianity pretty much hinges on the resurrection of Christ. Keller quotes Paul’s words from 1 Corinthians 15 about the resurrection: “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. ¹⁸ Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. ¹⁹ If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.”

It implies that the Christians at the time were living in a way that they would be pitied by the rest of the world. Perhaps they were living like the church in Acts 2; “⁴² They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.⁴³ Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. ⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵ They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.”

Actually now that I think about it, I don’t know if I would pity someone who lived like that. It actually sounds like a joyful life. But it definitely sounds somewhat foolish by today’s standards, selling properties to give to those in need– Who does that nowadays?!

I wonder what my life would like if I truly believed in the resurrection. In some way I do believe. That’s what a life of faith is. But do I really, honestly, truly believe, in such a way that if the resurrection were found to be false, my life would be pitied? Or I guess the question is, do I live that sort of foolish life? If not, what would that sort of foolish life look like for me?

I suppose it doesn’t necessarily mean selling all my possessions and going to serve in Africa (perhaps in my case becoming a bicycle builder there). At least in small group, that’s what the consensus seemed to be, that living foolish doesn’t necessarily mean big things like that. It sounded to me like we were trying to come up with small, practical ways to be “foolish.” Practical, yet foolish– sounds completely oxymoronic to me…

So that leaves me with the question again. What does a foolish life centered on the resurrection look like?

I wonder.