Thinking Theologically?

As our faith matures our understanding of God slowly evolves. As we develop spiritually we reach for new ways to express our faith and to put into words that which is happening to us. At least that is what I've experienced. When I went to seminary--a middle-aged woman--I gained a new vocabulary for that which I had been doing for decades! That is, thinking theologically. I just assumed every body did it... and they may! Who am I to say. We just call it 'thinking about God...' and continue to go about out the business of life.

My most profound 'theological thinking' took place as I changed diapers, washed dishes, ironed clothes, and vacuumed the floor. Today, I discovered a passage that informs a developing theology that I've had on the potter's wheel for many years now!

Since discovering 2 Corinthians 3:18 back in the early 1970s, the process of spiritual formation has stimulated my imagination.

"And we, ...all reflect the Lord's glory, ...being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."

We are being changed from one degree of glory to another! Granted, this transformation is a slow process but one that is happening now if we allow it, if we cooperate with the Lord and let the Spirit produce godly character in us.

In my decades of imaginings I leap into the future, to that day when I stand face to face with the Creator. In my imagination I stand before a benevolent, loving Other, one who reconciles and provides, a brilliance so radient that I must avert my eyes and bow my head in wonder and awe. In that moment the part of me that has not been surrendered to the purifying Spirit during my lifetime on earth will be burned away, consumed and eliminated so that I stand pure and holy before a Holy and Pure God. Declared holy in Christ in my youth, now, in death, I stand purified before a Holy God!

Scripture supports the image of our present process of spiritual formation as precious metal being refined by fire.

"...your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." 1 Peter 1:7

Scripture supports the images of the purifying fire.

"...since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our 'God is a consuming fire.'" Hebrews 12:28-29

Standing before and being answerable to a benevolent, loving, albeit purifying, God brings peace to my heart. That final purification will be an extenuation of the process already started. The Consuming Fire brings comfort, not hurt; consolation, not fear; purification, not punishment.

Today I read 1 John 3:2-3 and these words, read hundreds of times before, took on deeper meaning as I continue to turn my thoughts on the potter's wheel, forming an understanding that challenges me, even now, to submit my whole being and my way of being to this gracious God.

"Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure."