“This is not at all how I thought God would work in my life.” Ever heard that one? Ever thought it yourself? God’s ways are strange. Inscrutable. That’s the word translators used in Romans 11:33. It’s a hunter’s term that means untraceable. You can’t track God. His ways are elusive and beyond us. They’re past finding out.

That could sound discouraging, but when the Apostle Paul says it he’s celebrating and exulting. He’s offering us a truth that can shape and secure our hearts. But first, that truth must confront us. God’s ways are not our ways. And sometimes, the two run counter.

Paul’s declaration about God’s ways follows another description. “His judgments are unsearchable.” How God thinks and what God decides are incomprehensibly deep. And his activity throughout history follows an unconventional path. As one translation says, “It’s way over our heads. We’ll never figure it out.”

You find the same idea in Psalm 77: “Your way was through the sea, your paths through the great waters, yet your footprints were unseen.” Isaiah said it plainly, “Truly you are a God who hides Himself!” God’s ways are unpredictable. That’s not to say He’s impulsive, irrational, or inconsistent. He’s none of those. He’s holy. He’s just. He’s in control of Himself. God has never sinned against anyone or “had a moment.” He can be trusted. But he can’t be traced. We know that. But have we exulted in it?

Why does God permit what he does? Why allow sin and evil to mar his beautiful creation? Why tolerate the presence of a malicious spiritual being who slanders, deceives, and destroys? Why give such an influential platform to those who misrepresent his Word and pervert the Gospel. And why allow his church, the bride of Jesus, to be so persecuted and attacked throughout the world? His judgments are unsearchable. His ways past finding out.

God’s selection of leaders often baffles us. He passes over renown heroic figures and mighty empires to call Abraham, a Mesopotamian idolater, and make him the father of the Jewish nation. Then He chooses Jacob, not Esau. Isaac, not Ishmael. He seems to favor the ugly, despised, and overlooked to carry out His redemptive purposes. Shepherds slaughter giants. Uneducated fishermen turn the world upside down.

Consider all the strange means of deliverance God has employed: a single angel who slaughtered a swollen army. Plagues that leveled a nation. A mirage that frightened the enemy into flight. Giant hailstones from heaven. A rebel-swallowing hole in the earth. Slaughter-inducing confusion within enemy ranks. Blindness. Collapsing walls. Glass jars, torches, and trumpets. Shepherds with sling-shots. Muddy chariot trails. Walls of water. Flawed leaders. Failed plans. Unbelief. Sin."God can strike a straight stroke by a crooked stick." His judgments are unsearchable. His ways past finding out.

Survey your own life. Did God act the way you hoped and expected? How did He make you strong? How is He forming you into the likeness of his Son? Is it not through weakness, pain, suffering, and brokenness? Does God teach us patience by giving us easy relationships, comfortable budgets, optimal health, and parking spots in the front?

Renewal comes through a personal reckoning and death-to-self. Strength through weakness. Joy through sorrow. Success through failure. And beauty through ashes. In God’s upside-down kingdom debilitating thorns somehow make us useful servants.

Some of God’s choicest servants have known the deepest adversity. Consider Joni Eareckson Tada, a Christian speaker and author who has written more books than Stephen King and encouraged generations of fellow sufferers. How did God prepare Joni? She dove into shallow water at age 17 and broke her spine, confining her to a wheelchair for life. But God met her in her pain, transformed her perspective, and the rest is history. His judgments are unsearchable. His ways past finding out.

Now ponder your own redemption story. How was it that you came to know Jesus? I’ll wager your conversion was messy and involved a lot of pain, conflict, and missteps. When our idols get exposed and our human resources fail, it’s never pretty.

We especially see this in the Lord Jesus Christ. Consider God’s anointed Messiah. No beauty. No wealth. No academic credentials. No honorable pedigree. Look at his family tree: harlots and foreigners. His hometown was a poor, relatively unknown village. Can anything good come from Nazareth?

His entrance into the world was strikingly unremarkable. Unspeakable condescension. Humble incarnation. Born like all men, in weakness and dependency. He came not to a royal palace or sacred temple. He was born in a stable, in Bethlehem, in abject poverty. He birth was announced to shepherds. Not the expected PR move for a king’s arrival.

For most of his life, Jesus lived in obscurity. He was a carpenter’s son and had no formal learning. He was probably a carpenter himself. He never traveled more than 200 miles from where he was born and raised. He died in weakness, agony, shame, and humiliation. On a cross—reserved for traitors of Rome. He was despised and rejected. Abandoned by man, cursed and forsaken by God. His judgments are unsearchable. His ways past finding out.

Jesus entrusted his message of salvation to strange messengers. Fishermen, zealots, tax collectors, and terrorists. That’s bottom-of-the barrel recruits. And He has gathered to himself not the rich and famous, celebrities and influencers. Only a few of those. Survey His church and you’ll see what Paul says in another place. Not many “wise, powerful, or of noble birth.” No, God chose the foolish to shame the wise and the weak to shame the strong. His judgments are unsearchable. His ways past finding out.

And the medium of his message? How will it spread? Not through Ted Talks and TV shows. It’s preaching—and a foolish message at that! “The world through wisdom did not know God.” God doesn’t need our conventional wisdom or human ingenuity. Beware of professionalism and business savvy. They often get in the way and eclipse God’s power. God uses unimpressive people with seemingly unremarkable gifts—and fills them with His Spirit.

So when tempted with the world’s version of success. Or when carnal metrics for faithfulness creep into your vision, remember this truth with Paul, let it confront you— and then exult in it: how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out!