Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’ (1Corinthians 1: 26-31)

Wisdom - the Greek is sophia - is the knowledge, insight, and ability to deal effectively with reality. The human standard of wisdom is often self-serving.

How do I advance my objectives? How do I claim the advantage? How do I discourage my competitors? How do I cause others to support me?

But in the message of the cross God has demonstrated that our perception of reality - our purposes and goals - can be fundamentally mistaken.

God's reality - is there another? - is a perpetual state of self-giving creativity. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is a crystalization of this reality.

To abide in this wisdom is to be foolish by the measure of the world. To engage ultimate reality is to seem profoundly unrealistic by typical human standards.