A Little Full in the Head
I commend to you the “Theological Refining” post by Devin Hudson. Rarely do I find something that both refreshes and challenges me without sounding arrogant. I began to really pay attention after the following:
I get annoyed when I spend very much time with people who feel like they have it all figured out theologically (usually they are first year seminary students who have read a little Piper and suddenly are experts on the doctrines of grace). Perhaps it has to do with the fact that the more I have learned the more I have realized how much more I need to learn. And the more I affirm the sovereignty of God the more I realize how little my mind can grasp its magnitude. And perhaps it also has to do with the fact that the more I learn the more I realize that following Christ is more about day-to-day living and not so much about how many theology books I have read.
As a young seminarian who knew nothing, I was not annoyed by the know-it-all crowd. I was intimidated. They made me feel inferior and inadequate to the task of ministry and theological education. I did not know enough to know that they could not possibly know
what they claimed to know with such confidence. They were a barrier, not a help, to my growth as a disciple and a minister.
Thank all the heavens that I was preserved through the dark times of loneliness and shame. Praise the Lord that I eventually learned what I needed to learn to understand what God was doing with my life. I received a first-rate head-knowledge education at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. But I also was blessed to receive insight regarding evaluation, discernment, and generous debate as characterized by men such as Tom Schreiner, Russ Moore, and Bruce Ware. Moreover, I was blessed to belong to a congregation of those who modeled the ministry truth that “the people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
Ministry, and no less discipleship, is a lifelong lifestyle of a life transformed by the Savior. Grace and truthful love - not just love of the truth of grace - should be the hallmark of the people of God. May we, in our humility, show the world our greatness in Jesus Christ the Lord.
