Theology lived out

In the past couple of weeks my family has been reading through an advent book that is based on the Christmas story. Last night I was reading it with the rest of my family as I sat curled up in a ball, wrapped in a blanket and trying to stay awake. Through the story, the subject of bearing false witness came up. This author argued that, "God gave us common sense and that even though we should avoid breaking the ninth command, God also expects us to use the sense that He gave us." I was wide awake as I closed the book and muttered angrily, “That is messed up theology!” I launched into a “sermon” to no one in particular considering the fact that my whole family agreed that this author’s view was false. Chris smirked as I said sarcastically, “That’s right. Rely on your own autonomous reasoning instead of the inspired, holy, unchanging, everlasting Word of God.”

You know, it is easy to pick out wrong statements and views when it is something written on a page. When it is nothing more than someone else’s world view written in a made-up, abstract advent story, it is a simple thing to detect the error. Last night I was praying before I went to sleep. As I was laying there thinking, the Holy Spirit convicted me of how I daily play out this false theology in my every day life. Sure, I say that it is false and I believe it with all my heart. But when the rubber meets the road, which world view do I really chose? Do I rely on the Word of God and my relationship with the Lord, or on my own rationalizations? When I am prompted to start my day with prayer, do I heed that prompting; or do I come up with 101 reasons to not start the day walking in the Spirit as I rush to start the first task? When I am prompted to take the extra time to serve someone throughout the day, do I joyfully obey or do I instead invest time in self-satisfying things? When I remember that person who offended me, do I obey the Word of God by blessing them, or do I attempt to push the thoughts of them out of my mind and continue on with what I am doing? It doesn’t make sense to invest time in prayer when I have a lot of things to accomplish in a day. It doesn’t make sense to make other people successful by putting them above myself. It definitely doesn’t make sense to pray for the success of someone who has offended and hurt me.

Theology is definitely not an abstract idea or area of study. It affects my life and decisions that I make every day. Pray for me, if you would, that God would give me the grace to live out the theology that I know to be right. It is only by His grace that I can exercise faith and chose His way above my own logical reason and rational.