Today, I begin a new challenge: reading Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology from cover to cover. The book is around 1200 pages, so I figure if I read a few pages a day, I'll be done in one year. Very doable.
I decided to take this on after finishing David Nasser's biography "Jumping Through Fires." I was doing some work at Panera yesterday and had brought along the book to read if I needed a break.
At any given time, I'm reading about 5 books at once. But I started and finished this book within 12 hours. It was amazing. I had seen a video about David once at church, and made a mental note to Google him later. I did, and liked what I read, so when I found his biography in a half-price bookstore a few months ago, I grabbed it.
I saw so many similarities between his story and mine- not so much in his life before he came to Christ, but after. For some reason, this got me thinking about theology.
I take shortcuts. It's not smart, I know, but it's something I'm naturally inclined to do and find myself fighting all the time. When I started to develop solid friendships with Christians in college, I could see early on I was far behind these people. I definitely lacked a foundational knowledge of the Bible, but in attempting to follow simple discussions about the Bible, I realized I even lacked the skill to think critically.
I had a lot of ground to make up, in not a lot of time. Hello, shortcuts. The situation was intensified because I didn't want anyone to know I didn't know much. (I didn't even want anyone to know I accepted Christ freshman year. Talk about pride. I'm pretty sure they all knew anyway).
In those days, I soaked up any bit of knowledge from any type of source. It was really fun to walk into church knowing that I would leave knowing God better. I jumped very quickly into campus ministry. I rarely said no to any opportunity that would lead me to grow in my faith.
Because of all this, I had gained a lot of knowledge. The problem is, shortcuts don't pay. The knowledge was great, but I was lacking sometime.
I found this out when I joined staff with Campus Crusade. Part of their ongoing staff training involves taking seminary classes every couple of years. I knew the first two would take place at new staff training. I didn't know a lot about theology, doctrine, or methods of studying the Bible, but I had taken in so much in the last 5 years, I felt pretty good.
I was pretty surprised at what I learned. Knowledge is great, but its value is increased when it connects with your heart. After all these years of attaining knowledge and growing in my faith, I finally began to see and understand the WHY behind much of what I did.
Theology, of all things, showed me that my heart hadn't caught up with my mind.
David expressed similar thoughts in his book- though for him, his mind hadn't caught up with his heart. His story really got me thinking about this. All that to say, I'm going to read more theology, because for me, that helps my heart connect with my head. That, and prayer. But that's another topic and another story. I think studying theology might help other people in this area, too. So, look for more posts on theology down the road!
(Disclaimer: I'm eternally grateful for the friends, Campus Crusade staff, and church members that helped me grow in my faith so quickly. My lack of connection between my head and my heart was surely my own fault. My pride got in the way, so there's no way anyone would have been able to see any of this. Or maybe they did, I don't know. I think the lesson I learned is not something you can teach someone, but only one that someone can discover on their own. I'm definitely not blaming anyone for me turning out this way and I hope those that read don't think they miss-taught or mislead me in some way).
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