...and He is glorified.

I guess there is something good about having absolutely no social life -it forces you to spend more time thinking. And drinking tea. And eating fudge. :-)
Believe me there is lots to think about. Everywhere I turn I am bombarded with information about theology, about anthropology, sociology, psychology, Christology... pretty much any "ology" you can think of. More than that, it's a lot of information about self. About service. Understanding. What it means to love your brother. My classmate put it well when he said "Professor, everything you say is great, but there is so much sometimes it's hard to know what we are supposed to do with it all!" Not only how to organize it into our worldview, but how to live it without hypocrisy. I feel like I need 10 years of counseling before I could even begin with anyone else! And yet the more I hear, the more I am overwhelmed, and the more need I see for the body of Christ to be just that -a body! And the more I wonder, just what is wisdom? Where does knowledge flow into understanding, understanding into action? How can sinners minister to sinners? And I see more and more the beauty of the cross. The ugliness of torture, pain and death -and yet the most beautiful thing that could touch our lives. Not only touch our life, but consume it, control it, motivate it, energize it and even use it! It's as if the water of life is inside us and it's bubbling and filling and swelling until whether we like it or not it comes spilling over all our edges, bathing everyone we meet and giving them the consciousness that here is a person who knows about love. Who knows about sin. This is an image-bearer, a grace-child.
How I wish that I could only point to Christ! Every road sign I put up says "look at me" Every beginning of inspiration and understanding is so quickly overtaken by pride, gutted of sincerity and sent forward as another tribute to the work of Heidi Luimes!
And yet somehow, miraculously, God looks at all those smelly, selfish attempts and is glorified. Not in me, but in His Son. Not in my work, but in the finished work! In the work of the cross that somehow enables us to take another feeble step forward, rejoicing in the knowledge that "He who started the work will be faithful to complete it in you."