Goldfish in the Morgue Devotional

When Spider-Man Doesn’t Stick!

When Spider-Man Doesn’t Stick!

Scripture Passage: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Focal Verse: Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. ~ 1 Corinthians 1:25

There’s a well-known past case in my office that we talk about often. We affectionately refer to the guy in the story as ‘Spider-Man’. Although I wasn’t working there at the time, the case involves a man who was quite confident in his abilities to climb things better left unclimbed. One night, the decedent, after he and his buddies had a few drinks too many, gets the nifty idea to climb up to his ninth floor hotel room via the exterior facade. Using the building’s balconies as hand and footholds, he scrambled up one tier at a time. Long story short, he didn’t quite make it to his room. Somewhere around the fifth or sixth floor, he lost his grip and plummeted to the paved sidewalk below him.

To some extent, we make light of this tragedy (i.e. the nickname) as a means to cope with the realities of the job, but we’re more than conscious of the fact this young man had family who loved him. Friends who cherished him. One alcohol-fueled mistake ended these relationships in an instant. And yet, there is a lesson to be learned in all this. A lesson about wisdom and foolishness. A lesson about confidence in ourselves versus confidence in God.

We live in a world of reason. An age of scientific advancements that have exceeded the imaginations of people a mere generation or two ago. Trips are planned by private companies to go to Mars. Certain cancers are being successfully eliminated. As I write this post, I just learned that scientists have even been able to revive a species of animal that has been extinct for more than ten thousand years. Humanity is smart. I mean, really smart. We’ve seen into the atom. We’ve decoded human DNA. We’ve peeled back the veil and peeked into the quantum possibilities of the universe.

And despite all those advancements, we, as a people, are far more interested in what’s happening over at the Kardashian’s house than learning about the strength and fortitude of our founding fathers. More people can locate Waldo in a picture book than find Texas on a map of the Southwestern United States. And what’s worse, because of Mankind’s proud achievements in science and technology, a large percentage of the world (the majority, I’d say) refuse to accept the fact that our entire universe was created by the Living God. They look to creation itself as our own life-giver—as if a painting had given life to the hues and shadows along its own canvass.

Think about some of the greatest minds the world has ever seen. Hammurabi, Alexander the Great, Madam Curie, Einstein, Stephen Hawking…just off the top of my head. Each of them brilliant in their own fields. Each of them providing huge advancements in human civilization we enjoy today. And yet, compared to God, these great intellects are little more than intellectual amoebas. The Psalmist tells us that “the heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of His hands” (Psalm 19:1). And despite the declarations and the proclamations from creation itself, we have only observed a tiny percentage of one percent of all there is to see. And we understand even less.

There’s a great story that illustrates what Paul is telling the church at Corinth in this passage:

A scientist told God, “We no longer need you. We have advanced to the point that we can create anything we need with our own ingenuity.”

God said, “You want to put that to a test?”

The scientist said, “Sure. What do you have in mind?”

God said, “Let’s each make a man, just like I did with Adam. I’ll go first.”

Then God created man from the dirt. The scientist leaned down to pick up a handful of dirt, so he could replicate the work of God.

“Wait a minute!” said God. “Go get your own dirt!”

We all have a tendency to get haughty from time to time. All have the proclivity to get uppity. To think much too highly of ourselves. During these times…when we get too big for our britches…1 Corinthians 1:25 would be a great verse to have memorized to spring to mind in a moment’s notice. Let’s focus on humility. Let’s rely less on our own wisdom and understanding (Proverbs 3:5) and lay all our decisions and needs in the wisdom of the Almighty. God is never foolish and He’s never weak, but it’d do us well to remember that even at His weakest, there is nothing He cannot do.

Father God, thank you for using the foolish of this world to stymie the so-called wise. Thank you for using the ‘fools’ of this world—us—to bring glory to your name. Help us LORD to rely on your wisdom and to consider our own wisdom things little more than foolishness. It’s through your wisdom that we do the greatest things. Thank you for that.Are you enjoying these devotionals? Let me know! I’d love to continue providing more of these in the future, but I’m curious what you think. Be sure to comment, share, and restack these posts to your friends and family. I’d really appreciate it.

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Pick up a copy of I Died Swallowing a Goldfish and Other Life Lessons from the Morgue. Also, I wanted to let you know I’ve already started working on the stories for book two in the series, tentatively called The Potato Didn’t Pulled the Trigger and Other Life Lessons from the Morgue, which should be available Fall 2026.