Personal Theology

today in class my professor said something that got my interest:

"i'm happy that we don't kill each other today over differences in theology, but maybe we've gone too far to the other extreme.  it seems like we don't care about theology at all in our churches.  i hope as educated, trained ministers that you do better."

that rang some bells in me.  for the past few days i've realized how bad theology really gets on my nerves.  bad theology handicaps people in terms of growth.  i hate that too.

i think of theology as an explanation of how the whole god and man thing works.  how does god deal with man?  how does god respond to man? what should we expect from god? these are more are vital questions that we have to understand before we can say that our faith has any sort of coherent rhyme or reason.  now, my understandings and vocabulary are very green....so i'm no expert on this.  i guess this is a newfound interest of mine.  but my heart is really burdened by it, so i guess i'll talk about it for a while.

now of course, one could say "all that matters is that jesus died for you and loves you."  all the other stuff we argue and disagree about doesn't matter.  if you turn to the bible to prove your point, which you probably will, you've already displayed how important methodical theology is to you.  you just demonstrated that your theology places authority in the scripture contained in the 66 documents of the bible...that's how your whole god system works.

so often we place the idea of theology on the shelf.  we "do" theology everyday. we live it.  our actions are constantly detailing to the world around us how we think god works, who we think god is, and how god works in our lives.  these actions are usually what people see before they hear our words.  paul was correct when he said we are "living epistles."

as i reflect on myself and some common thoughts around me...i feel like my epistle needs an Editor!!!  i believe we should all do theology.  if at any point you discuss god with someone else...that is exactly what you are doing!  i'm not saying that we all need to become seminarians (although having more wouldn't hurt), but at what point do we think about what we believe? is our believe pattern actually logical to us?  clearly we can't hit every nail on the head, but are the basics clear?  and after that, do our own viewpoints actually help or harm?  Have you ever thought about what would happen if someone where to live your theology?

maybe i'll do a series or something.  but i'll give some bullet points to clarify.

here's what happens in my head when i think about various statements.

"God is punishing haiti because of their forefather's sins."
"well...if haiti is suffering because of god's judgment, what's the point of sending money?  wouldn't assisting people that have been condemned by god mean i'm going against his will?  plus, jesus didn't seem to care about that.  are thinking with old testament views?  but i thought we lived in the new testament!"  (note: i think mr. 700 club was dead wrong for saying that)

"i don't believe in praying for people to get well."
"well...if you don't believe in at least praying for sick people to be made well, then why go to a doctor?  if i ask god to heal me and nothing happens, god must want me to be sick.  going to the doctor is just getting in the way of his will, right?"  (note:  i'm definitely a believer that god heals today.  he's healed me, i've seen him heal others, and i've been blessed to pray and see others healed as well)

i didn't use those examples to insult anyone's personal beliefs (well, maybe the first one).  i just wanted to give a glimpse at what goes on in my head when i hear statements like that.  what i've realized is that a lot of times our personal theologies are just for us.  they are not lived with the intent of someone else seeing and emulating.   could someone else copy off of you and still get to jesus?  can your life direct someone to the Light?  what does your life point to?  tired, dry, and powerless rituals...or vibrant life in christ?  that's what i'm thinking about for my life, because a big part of my theology is that people need to see that christ means enough and is that dope enough to revolve my life around.