Devotion – God Is No Fool by Lois Cheney

Back in the dark ages, the year 1985 to be exact, I had the privilege to serve as a Student Assistant Minister at The Wesley Foundation on the campus of Eastern Kentucky University. The Campus Minister, the Rev. Mark Girard, had offered me the position so I could check out what he felt was my calling to ministry. Before the fall semester began, Mark and some of us student leaders went on a retreat to Lake Junaluska (the capital of Southern United Methodism) in western North Carolina. There, nestled in amongst the Smokey Mountains, we spent several days in prayer and planning for the upcoming year. And while there I came across a small devotional book by the Christian writer Lois Cheney (no relation to our former VP). One of my favorite devotions from the book also provides the text with its title. Cheney wrote:

They say that God has infinite patience,
and that is a great comfort.
They say God is always there,
and that is a deep satisfaction.
They say that God will always take you back,
and get lazy in that certainty.
They say that God never gives up,
and I count on that.
They say that you can go away for years and years,
and God will be there, waiting, when you come home.
They say you can make mistake after mistake,
and God will always forgive and forget.
They say lots of things,
these people who have never read the Old Testament.
There comes a time, a definite, for sure time,
when God turns around.
I don’t believe God shed his skin
when Christ brought in the New Testament;
Christ showed us a new side of God,
and it is truly wonderful.
But Christ didn’t change God.
God remains forever and ever
and that God
is
no
fool.