Last. Night...on a bed of lettuce.

  First day of school. First day of school.

A lot of people ask me, “Chels, what are you studying at school?”

                  I would say, “Educational Ministry”… which no one is familiar with, so I decided to start saying theology… to make it easiser.

Not until people started asking… “What is theology?” did I realize that this isn’t actually an easy answer. One.. because I didn’t REALLY know how to answer (embarrassing I know).. and two, because it means so many different things to people.

This morning in class my professor rattled off a definition I really like. I’m HORRIBLE with memory, and forget things as they are said… but this is what I was able to write down. Even if it’s not his exact words.. the general gist is captured.

“Theology is the systematic reflection process on the person of Jesus Christ”

He went on to explain that theology isn’t only about statements.. it’s about questions. Theology isn’t only about description.. but identity. Theology is something that is breathed… lived out. Theology is about God, and because God shows through everything.. theology is about everything.

From here my professor explained that he isn’t about defining truth. He knows that he is limited. His capacity to clarify truth is confined, because we are so small compared to God.

He started off class with an exercise where we spent 2 minutes getting to know the person next to us. Pretty basic. However, he did something new. He had us then turn around and tell the person on the other side of us as much as we could about the person we had just spoken with. We can’t capture a person in facts. We can spend much time studying a person and still not be able to fully describe them.

“Christ is full of grace, life and salvation.

The soul is full of sin, death and damnation.

Now let faith come between them and sins, death and damnation will be Christ’s, while grace, life and salvation will be the soul’s; for if Christ is the bridegroom, he must take upon her the things that are his. If he gives her his body and very self, how shall he not give her all that is his? And if he takes the body of the bride, how shall he not take all that is hers?” 

–Martin Luther