Theology Is Our War Plan

I heard the phrase again this weekend, "theology is our war plan".  It resonated deep inside of me.  I believe this to the core of my being.  My fear is that in the culture we live in and even in our church culture we have become so celebrity focused that we go clamoring after the next book, bible study, and or blog that has the most popular name attached to it and leave behind the Name that is above every name.  We possibly are learning a lot about God through someone else's lens or life experience but we have failed to know God for ourselves.  I talk to women all the time that spend time reading books, blogs, and listening to pod casts and somehow equate that with the study of God's word and knowing Him.  It's not...  I too read blogs, books, and listen to podcasts but they are tools.  Nothing can substitute sitting long and often at His word learning to feast through the study of Him written on the pages of holy writ.

Theology is just that, the study of Him.  The knowing Him.  Practical theology is then knowing Him and acting like you know Him in the daily routine of life.  That's where theology being our war plan comes into play...the daily stuff like marriage and parenting, like work and church, like interacting with your neighbors and those crazy shoppers out there!  We need a war plan, a strategic and intentional plan to wade through our lives.

There has been one paragraph written in a book by Elyse Fitzpatrick titled When Life and Beliefs Collide, that was so pressed into my life upon reading it, I have it printed out and read it about once a month and I think I have included it in just about every bible study I've done with women in the past five years.  It resonates deep inside of me as well because it describes what it means to have theology as our war plan.

"The great women theologians I have come across cultivated the habit of using their theology in the here and now.  What set these women apart--kept them from sinking when everything else was going down and strengthened them to lend a hand to others--was their unblinking focus on God.  They were serous about knowing him and studied the scriptures with that intention.  They nurtured their faith on the truth of God's character so that, instead of starting over from scratch in each new situation, wondering if God's goodness had expired or if he had somehow lost control, these women fixed their eyes on him and actually put their weight down on the truth.  No matter what the challenge or the adversity, their ironclad conviction was that he is always good, is always on his throne, is always working, always knows what he is doing, and that his love for them never stops.  They were not passive with their knowledge but consciously took it up and confronted life with it. Their hearts were strong because they were sure of God.  It made a difference in their running, and what is more, because their eyes were fixed on Jesus, they were better wives, mothers, daughters, and friends."

What is your war plan?
Our husbands, children, neighbors, and world need women of theology.
Challenge: Know God and live like you know Him.

Always Learning,
Kim
Psalm 119:90-91

Difficult People or God's Messengers

Let's get truthful....
We all have difficult people in our lives!  Can I get a witness?  The difficult comes in different packages and in varied ranges.  From the person who cuts in front of you at the grocery store, or that one who has 496 items in the 20 or less check-out. (that last one gets me EVERY TIME!) Or maybe your difficult person is in your family or a neighbor or co-worker.  This person could be one who is pushy, domineering, wants to control you, a know-it-all, inconsiderate, hurtful in their words, betrays your friendship, the list can go on and on and  the level of hurt can cut deeper and deeper.  They can be the person we have never met or they could be a person up close and personal, which is where the deeper and deeper scenerio comes in.  I have grappled with some of the same questions you have.  Jesus' words ringing in my ears to love God and love people.  Constantly asking what does that look like?  What does that kind of love say and do?  We are, as followers of Jesus, asked to deny ourselves, pick up our cross (identify ourselves with our Savior), and follow Him.  There is not a pat answer, oh how I wish there was, it is much easier for me to live with a list! If I have a list then I live by the list instead of by the One who made me and gave me the relationships.  I have come to believe that denying self sometimes requires saying nothing AND sometimes the highest form of love and denying self is speaking a hard truth for the sake of another. Speaking's motivation is always desiring God's highest good for another, which takes me out of the equation, my feelings and thoughts, and puts God's desires for another above my own.  I think it means granting access with authenticity and vulnerability with some AND creating boundaries. He gets to tell us what His will is in each situation and each relationship. But, if we are not walking with Him and our ear is not attuned to His voice then we will not hear His direction.  Hard?...yep.... Worth it?....Yes.

I have been taking this year to re-read some of the words written by men and women that God has used in my life to mentor and disciple me.  One of those women is Elisabeth Elliot.  Her words on difficult people spoke to me once again as they did years ago.  "How can this person who so annoys or offends me be God's messenger?  Is God so unkind as to send that sort of person across my path?  Insofar as his/her treatment of me requires more kindness than I can find in my own heart, demands love of a quality I do not possess, asks of me patience that only the Spirit of God can produce in me, he/she is God's messenger.  God sends him/her in order that he/she may send me running to God for help."

Perspective?  or  Perspective Shift?

Jim has called people like described above as, "holy sandpaper".  The likeness is not lost on me, sandpaper is rough, abrasive, hard...(fill in your own adjectives) but sandpaper has a purpose, it's purpose is to sand off rough places of whatever it touches.  So the possibility exists that the difficult-sandpaper-people are sanding off rough places of me.

Oh that my perspective would be swallowed up in Jesus'.
Always learning,
Kim