Skip to main content

And an extra side of wisdom please

In this morning's bible study (which I love!) I found myself experiencing something I'm sure most seminary trained students experience. I was listening to people, discerning their theology, seeing the dangers in their theology, the holes, and feeling the need to correct them, but not sure when or how. One of the girls was sharing about the book The Shack (which is next on my "fun" books to read). She shared about how the book explored the humanity and divinity of Jesus and as she was sharing I heard, what were in my mind, HUGE holes. The theology behind the discussion was something that had been lettered as heresy in the early church, and now here we were sitting in a coffee shop in Manhattan, two young women, discussing this concept. And I wanted to throw my arms up and stop my new friend from going any further into this heretical discourse, to lead the group in a short and succinct, yet theologically sound, lecture on the early church's formation of the dual nature of Christ. But I didn't, and within 30 seconds the conversation had moved onto a different topic completely unrelated. Those 30 seconds were long enough however to make me keenly aware of the struggle that had just occured in my heart. I had the theological training to spot the problem, to discern the "off-ness" of the theology being presented. But I hadn't really been trained to share it outside of the format of the 10 page paper or a formal presentation. How do you learn these things? Should I be upset by the apparent lack of training I received in my theological education. For what good is theology if not shared and applied? No, I think Westminster did me a great good in training me to discern the theology under peoples words and actions, and now I need to pray for wisdom to move past the ivory tower, to use this training in the coffee shop conversations.

Comments

Anonymous said…
what a good struggle! i will pray with you that as you discern theology, you love the people around you in your theological wisdom :)

miss you becka!

love, erin :)

Popular posts from this blog

a good sign

I live near a long thin park called Parque Forestal. It's really quite a nice park and it has a long stretch of a lane for riding bikes or jogging. And since I have a fear of riding bikes in this city, I jog. It's really pleasent. I usually listen to radioDisney on my mp3 player and jog along to Jonas Brothers, Beyonce, or Julieta Venegas. Great stuff. Yesterday on my jog I noticed that the trees were beginning to change. Fall has finally arrived and I am glad for the change. But as I was jogging through the falling leaves, I began to think about how much I like fall. And I had this special moment when I realized that I want to be here in Santiago, jogging through this park for many falls to come. After the past few weeks of cultural adjustment being a little more painful than normal, this was a nice thought to have.

la musica de chile

For a moment I would liek to ponder the music of Chile. You see, I listen to just about everything (except non-live jazz). Even country, although in this category I limit myself to Dixie Chicks and The Judds (only the old stuff). Here in Chile there is really only a few types of music. One, the corny romantic music that belongs on programs like "Delilah at night". Being the hopeless romantic that I am, I love this type of music. Another type of music is Reggaton (not sure about the spelling, but do I ever spell words correctly?). This is Latin America´s response to Hip Hop. Very good for dancing. I also love the fact that most Reggaton is in Spanglish, my favorite language. There is this other type of music that I like to call the "Corny Electric Piano Musica". Too corny for me and I can only take so much electric piano in one song. I am amazed at how much Englsih music is played here. And people sing to it. they actually know the words, but they have no clue what t

murderous thoughts for cats

I got home from work today, exhausted, only to face the horrible whining of the neighborhood cats outside my window. They used to be really loud, and then in the cold of the winter they disappeared. But now they seem to have returned in full force. I sure hope I can sleep tonight!