The most important, and most effective, witness for the faith is a life lived by it.
- At GetReligion, a report on a series of stories published by the Seattle Times about a dying girl named Gloria Strauss and her family. Their experience affected those who wrote the stories and the community.
- The series, titled “A prayer for Gloria,” covers too much ground for us to review here (nine installments), but here is a recent story that movingly describes the young girl’s battle with cancer and how the family’s faith is the essential element in their lives.
- Internet Monk writes "Dumb Up, Brother: A Spirituality of Ignorance." He recounts being in a hospital with his dying mother and a pastor, who was no theologian or Bible scholar, did what was needed:
- He was the Bible for me that day. He put flesh and blood on God and hung out with me. He thought for me when I couldn’t think clearly. He knew my heart and he helped me listen to my heart at a very confusing moment. He treated me with love and dignity that brought joy into one of the worst days of my life.
Walter showed me that day that if you are going to measure life by how it’s lived, and not by how people talk about what they believe, he knows a lot more about God than I do. He’s not read anywhere close to the books that I’ve read and he doesn’t have my vocabulary or degrees. He has the the book that matters, and its author, in him. Compared to Walter’s embodiment of Jesus, I’m stupid.
On that second part, I've read advice that if you want to read and study theology you should pray at least twice as long as the time you allocate/spend in study. That is, if you want to spend time studying God, you should spend more time talking to Him.
ReplyDeleteGood advice. Rarely followed (by me as well).
That is a good approach. Of course, given the amount of time I devote to study, it wouldn't be too hard.
ReplyDeleteI had a professor who told the "young budding theologs treat the contry Old country parson well. He just may know more about livng the Bible that all the book learning you ever have will teach you"
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