Why Dry?

Recently I gave a presentation to a broad audience at work. On the invitation, several questions I had answered were displayed, to familiarize those invited with me as a person. One of the questions was "What is your favorite book genre?". My response was "dry and boring theology". I like, and even love, theology. Not everyone shares my sentiment. I did a google search of "dry theology" and found from the context shown for the results that most people hold "dry theology" in contempt. In general there were two assessments of "dry theology".

The first was that "dry theology" which was only in one's head and did not lead to action in one's hands is a useless theology. I agree wholeheartedly with rejection of such "dry theology". James writes in his epistle of 'faith which does not result in works' (James 2:14-26). He assesses that such a faith is a dead faith. In the same way, "dry theology" which is a mere assent to some theological deductions or dogmas and does not lead to a changed life and a reaffirmed love for God is not useful. It profits none. It is worthless. I do not intend for readers of this blog to read and have all that they've read remain only in their head. If what I say is true to what God has revealed, it should result in fruit in my life.

The second assessment of "dry theology" is that it is useless all together. Indeed, many people hold a distain for all theology because they find it all useless. I was reminded of "dry bones" from Ezekiel 37 (Ezekiel 37:1-14). In the valley, there were dead bones. These bones were dead, cold, and dry. Bones in this state are useless. Nevertheless, anyone who considers the state of these bones has underneath their skin and flesh bones of their own. Bones give structure. Bones give support. Bones are rigid. They do require flesh to keep them moist. They do require muscle to make them move. No person has distain for the bones within themselves. In the same way, I feel that we must not have distain for theology. It gives structure, support, and rigidity to the flesh of our lives.

In a blog, I do not expect that I can bring "dry theology" to be anything other than words on a screen. I do not have the power to bring dry bones to life. But God does. Faith comes from hearing (Romans 10:14-17). God has the ability to make my fallible words useful for those whom He has chosen for himself. I intend to write of what I know of the God I serve. I pray that God will use it to serve Himself well.

Blog Post 001

8/6/2009

"I'm going to start a blog."

These are the words I spoke to my wife. I expected a drumroll or a gasp of awe at the words... but not so much. Not that my wife doesn't support me, she does. She's been with me step by step since we said "I do"... or "I will" as it were. I love my wife. I love God. I love Jesus Christ, who is God, but also became man in order to save His people. These are but the beginning of the reasons I want to start a blog. I want to write my thoughts, keep a journal. If my thoughts could be helpful to others, I'd like them available. So, I logged into blogger.com and clicked "started a blog". I was directed to the following prompts:
Blog title:
Blog address
(URL):

Having just come back from Airdrie, Scotland on a mission trip, I tried:
covenanter
http://covenanter.blogspot.com/

I clicked "Check availability".

Sorry, this blog address is not available

What? Someone else has thought to use the same address? I had expected such trouble, so I opened a new tab and took a look at "covenanter.blogspot.com". I wanted to see the success of the person who had the address which I myself would have chosen. I felt a kinship with this person even before the page loaded. When it did, however, I saw one post, dated Wednesday, October 18, 2006. I read the post. This person was a fan of Reformed Theology. I am a fan of Reformed Theology. This person had started this blog but hadn't updated it since 2006. I felt a bit of resentment toward them. They were taking a space that someone else wanted... and weren't even using it! I quickly tried a few others.

http://reformed.blogspot.com/
1 post dated Tuesday, August 05, 2003

http://protestant.blogspot.com/
2 posts... most recent dated Saturday, January 25, 2003

http://psalmsinger.blogspot.com/
not a single post

This was irritating. I quickly tried a few others randomly...

http://blogthought.blogspot.com/
1 post dated Tuesday, March 08, 2005. This post reads: "Very late... thinking about what's next.... all alone here. found this blog site... let's see what happens.
"

http://devoted.blogspot.com/
1 post dated Monday, November 13, 2000. This post reads: "I'm not even sure why I even made or even signed up for this thing."

Why was this so difficult? Why was I so irritated? These people all had aspirations to become exceptional bloggers. I'm sure they pondered what name to give their mind's voicebox. They had clever titles. They had reserved the coveted URLs. Why hadn't they followed through? Would I do just the same? Would someone come to my blog someday and find irritation at only reading what they've just read. Is someone reading this right now irritated at me?

http://irritated.blogspot.com/
2 posts... most recent dated Thursday, January 23, 2003. This post reads: "ll"

Perhaps I won't start a blog today.