Friday, December 02, 2011
Therapy and Doctrine
Al Mohler opined about Anthony Weiner:
Theology is about thinking - spirituality is about me. It is one thing to know that I am a sinner, even believe that I am a sinner. It is another thing altogether to REALIZE, on a spiritual level, that I am corrupt, sinful, ugly man - to feel in the deepest part of me my sin and the ramifications thereof.
For decades I knew and could recite the story of Christ in Gethsemane - His fervent prayer, His sweating blood, the confrontation with Judas and the officials - but this past summer when I stood there, amongst trees grown from the roots of the trees Christ stood amongst, it became more than story. Tears flowed without ceasing - somewhere in those moments, the story became real and I felt, on some small scale, the pain and anguish that Jesus felt. It was overwhelming.
We must do more than know and and believe we are sinners, we mist be overwhelmed by that reality.
Sadly, many Christians have accepted this worldview as their own, believing that their own deepest problems are therapeutic rather than theological in nature.While I agree with the idea Mohler posits here, I have to disagree with the way he gets there. Our problems are NOT "theological" in nature. They are spiritual, they have to do not with what we believe about ourselves and God but with who we are standing in front of God.
Theology is about thinking - spirituality is about me. It is one thing to know that I am a sinner, even believe that I am a sinner. It is another thing altogether to REALIZE, on a spiritual level, that I am corrupt, sinful, ugly man - to feel in the deepest part of me my sin and the ramifications thereof.
For decades I knew and could recite the story of Christ in Gethsemane - His fervent prayer, His sweating blood, the confrontation with Judas and the officials - but this past summer when I stood there, amongst trees grown from the roots of the trees Christ stood amongst, it became more than story. Tears flowed without ceasing - somewhere in those moments, the story became real and I felt, on some small scale, the pain and anguish that Jesus felt. It was overwhelming.
We must do more than know and and believe we are sinners, we mist be overwhelmed by that reality.
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