“… Theology is only a way of thinking about and
understanding-or misunderstanding- God.” (Spirit of the Disciplines 14)
How and what we think about God matters. Theology shapes
our thoughts about the future, our purpose in life, and how we treat other
human beings. Let’s face it, in all the annals of human history we still have
not learned how to treat others very well. Many people seem to think that the
solution to treating other people better is education. While this does help the
process of accepting others, the reality is that we cannot change our own
hearts. We try with all our might but in the end we are left in utter despair
of who we are.
This is where the Triune God of the Christian scriptures
reveals himself to humanity. The Christian story proclaims that God is the only
one who changes, rather transforms, human hearts/souls. This is not some one
time random event in our lives though. This is a back and forth networking
between us and the Holy Spirit. It is a training of sorts that helps us live
into Christlikeness. Dallas Willard calls them spiritual disciplines. I call it
spiritual crossfit! Ha Ha. If anybody is actually reading this blog from
crossfit they will kick a kick out of that. All jokes aside, we need to approach
our spiritual training as rigorous and methodical as we do our physical
fitness. Then we will see God for who he really is, the importance of life, and
how the two really do go hand in hand.
So Good! As each day we can pick up our crosses to follow Him or not follow, what will we choose? As we are entering the Lent Season (or) already in it, the Holy Spirit is calling us His followers to pick up our crosses and follow Him! This impacts my thinking on the same way we physically choose to live our lives we will address our spiritual lives (it's a muscle! it needs to be worked out to grow or else we won't grow)
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to talk to you guys again (tomorrow I hope ;-) Xoxo