Learning to Boast in Christ Alone

From an article titled “Six Weeks in Taiwan” that I wrote for my church newsletter on my trip to Taiwan:

While in Taipei, I stayed with my grandparents, who graciously offered to host me in the extra room of their apartment. I was excited for the chance to spend more time with them, but living with my grandparents, who are not Christians, was a daily test in humility and patience. My grandfather had strong opinions about everything, which he subsequently made known to everyone, and his comments often revealed a deeply
prideful and self-righteous heart.

I thought  about how Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:27-31 that God chooses the foolish, weak, lowly, and despised things of the world to shame the wise and the strong. How does this happen? The answer is at the cross— for the cross calls us to boast not in ourselves, but in Christ alone. My grandfather was an accomplished two-star general who later became a high-ranking government official, easily considered “wise” and “strong” by the world’s standard, but he will be shown to be foolish and weak in the Kingdom to come unless he boasts in Christ alone. Through God’s grace and mercy, I pray that my grandfather might humble himself and come to know Christ. Through this experience, I was also reminded of my own constant need to boast in Christ alone and recognize that humility and patience come as responses to God’s grace.

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