1 Corinthians 1:20-25: in context

Paul confronts the world's confidence in its own cleverness. Where is the wise? Where is the debater of this age? God has made the wisdom of the world look foolish. For the world, in all its wisdom, did not come to know God, so God chose to save people through what looks like folly: the message of a crucified Messiah, a stumbling block to some and nonsense to others. But to those who are called, Christ crucified is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

The cross offends both the seekers of signs and the seekers of sophistication. A savior executed as a criminal is not what human wisdom would design; it looks like weakness and defeat. And that, Paul says, is exactly the point. God works through what the world dismisses as foolish and weak, because the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. If I insist on measuring God's ways by the world's standards of cleverness and force, I will keep tripping over the cross, missing that God's deepest wisdom looks, at first, like folly.

Do I measure God's ways by the world's standards of wisdom and strength, tripping over the cross, or do I trust that he saves through what looks like foolishness and weakness?