Someone Like Me | 1 Corinthians 1:27-31

Welcome to Real Life. Meet Barry Brophy!

When Peggi invited me write a guest post, I prayed and spent time listening to the Holy Spirit. He reminded me of the earlier calling He had placed on my life, “Write what you know.” These verses from 1 Corinthians illustrate God’s work in my life:

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise;
God chose the weak things of this world to shame the strong.
God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised thing—
and the things that are not—
to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.
It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus,
who has become for us wisdom from God—
that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.
Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”
(1 Corinthians 1:27-31)

While delving into the vast contextual riches of this passage would take many weeks, I wish to transcribe the meaning into a simple focal point:  God chooses to use the most unqualified people to share His Gospel message. This very process turns the wisdom, knowledge, and strength found in humanity upside down in confusion.

It is God’s redemptive power through Christ Jesus that can take a person enslaved to the most heinous of sin, redeem him or her through belief in the Gospel message and repentance of sin, and then use their experience to help others escape from that sin. The Bible is full of stories in which a person’s crippling weakness was turned into strength by the power of God. They were then able to accomplish God’s purposes (all historically documented) by what most would consider foolish, weak, and unwise methods. And based on this powerful history of events, God still uses this same method today.

As a teenager, I suffered from periods of deep depression that left me purposeless, emotionally numb, and suicidal. I viewed my existence as insignificant; l was just another ship tossed to and fro on the waves of life. The bitterness in my heart left me a demeaning, critical person. But, God delivered me. Today, He uses me to encourage those battling depression as well as pray for their deliverance. The cage of depression which once incarcerated me now empowers me to offer the hope found in Christ to others trapped in its destructive cycle.

As I minister to others, I often pray for wisdom. We serve a gracious God. He freely imparts His divine wisdom to us for ALL circumstances because of the accomplishments of Jesus Christ’s redemption of humanity. I find God’s kingdom described beautifully in this passage as one where:

Everyone has a place of importance.

It is God’s nature to use the most unexpected and unqualified of people—someone like me—to share His Gospel message!

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