'LOVE GOD WITH YOUR MIND'

 In Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis, he writes about the importance and practicality of theology. Personal experience with God is like a man standing on the beach in awe of God’s handiwork. Theology is like hundreds of thousands of people experiencing God and making a map of the oceans. Personal experience is powerful and real, but you need a map if you are going to go anywhere. Both are necessary. You can’t go to sea without a map. You wouldn’t know where you are going or how to get there. It wouldn’t be safe. But having a map without going to sea won’t get you anywhere at all. “You will not get eternal life by simply feeling the presence of God in flowers or music… If you do not listen to theology, that will not mean that you have no ideas about God. It will mean that you have a lot of wrong ones – bad, muddled, out-of-date. For a great many of the ideas trotted out as novelties today are simply the ones which real Theologians tried centuries ago and rejected.” (MC, p 135)

 Do you learn about God from the great Christians who have come before – perhaps an Upper Room Spiritual Classic of St. Augustine, Teresa of Avila, or Thomas A Kempis (You can get these on Amazon)? Do you read challenging Christian books that shape your worldview – perhaps Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis or The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Both on Amazon). Are you in a small group that reads and grows together? 

 How are you ‘loving God with all your mind’? I challenge you to do one of the practices listed above during the last couple of weeks of Lent. It will be like studying a map that will help you sail to the far shore.