Meet guest blogger, Jon Jordan. I know Jon because we both used to work for Young Life, and both worked with crazy fun middle school kids. When my YL area and another area were going on a retreat and we needed a speaker, the other girl in charge and I were so excited to ask Jon. I am so glad we did. He loves Jesus deeply and you can see it in the way he gives his life away and in the words that he uses. Jon hails form Katy, TX, has a fantastic wife, Vivien, can rock a mustache, has an awesome Twitter account and website, and surprisingly enough, never really wanted to be a theologian...
I never wanted to be a theologian.
I wanted to be hip, cool and well-liked, and theologians are not hip, cool or well liked. I could lie and say that I have achieved all those things, but my wife and the rest of our friends would just point and laugh at me. But as it turns out, never wanting to be a theological did not stop me from becoming one.
That being said it wasn't long before I realized that you don't really become a theologian, instead you just are one. And not just those who study scripture or go to seminary, but anybody who holds a belief about God and shapes their life around that belief. That covers all of us. Whether you believe that there is no God, or you believe that there are many Gods, your life is shaped by that belief. So it turned out I was a theologian, but at least I'm not alone.
This realization instilled in me a desire to learn as much as I can about the God that I claim exists. My wife reminds me that she never signed up to be a seminary or ministry wife, and I remind her that I never meant to sign up for it either. Once I began the journey of discovering and aligning myself with the historic, orthodox, Christian view of who God is, I found that I couldn't stop. Another strange effect of pursuing God is that I didn't lose interest in other things I enjoy, they just begin to have more purpose. My marriage is my greatest earthly joy, but now I also see it as a picture of Christ's great pursuit of his people. Time with friends is still one of the highlights of my week, but now our relationships are a beautiful picture of a God who exists and creates in community. I still enjoy a great beer, but now that beer points to a God who is the author of Great and the eternity we will spend enjoying him.
Theology matters. I think C.S. Lewis summed up what I continue to believe about studying God when he said that "If these things [the historic-redemptive story of Scripture] are true, they are of infinite importance. If they are not true, they are of no importance. But the one thing it cannot be if of moderate importance."
