Again, I find myself I appreciating guest blogger Scott Miller’s open and frank sharing about his faith on Tony Jones blog. He articulates much that I can empathise with in a clear and simple manner.<\/p>\n
\nIf I could talk to my 17-year-old self, I would say that I still believe that God is at work in my life, but maybe not in the same way that a 17-year-old understands. I would tell him that I still experience the authority of scripture, but I don\u2019t find that authority in the\u00a0words <\/em>of scripture, but in the Event to whom scripture testifies. And I would say that I have not substituted human reason for revelation, but realize that I can only understand the revelation in human, fallible, finite ways, and that it is a mistake to think that anyone\u2019s theology is every entirely adequate to express the revelation of the Infinite.<\/p>\n
But above all, I would tell my gnostic-leaning 17-year-old self,\u00a0it\u2019s more important to be a true follower of Christ and actually act in Christlike ways than it is to have what you think is the correct theology.<\/strong> Ideas matter, but real, living human beings matter more. Don\u2019t forget Paul\u2019s words in 1 Cor. 13:1-3:<\/p>\n
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love I gain nothing.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n