1. The world says "might is right."  The Lord says "turn the other cheek."
2. The world says "the survival of the fittest."  The Lord says "It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant"
3. The world says "I did it my way."  The Lord says "Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me."
4. The world says "the one who dies with the most toys wins."  The Lord says "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?  
5. The world says "I think therefore I am."  The Word says "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price."
6. The world says "Follow your passions."  The Word says "Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions."
7. The world says "Stay true to yourself."  The Lord says "For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come."
8. The world says "Be all that you can be."  Saint Paul says "it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?  There is some truth in each of the adages of worldly wisdom, but in each case the truths have been perverted, the orientation changed.  Instead of being oriented to God as the center of our lives and all that is mankind has placed itself on that pedestal - which is idolatry and foolishness.

God's pedestal is a cross - this is the wisdom of God: a bloodied, scourged, and spat upon Messiah who is God and Man, in whom alone we can be all that we can be.  In Christ alone, and him crucified,  are we most truly ourselves.

Rev'd Sarah+