TheoSpora

John Patton, in Pastoral Care in Context says the following:

"God created human beings for relationship and continues in relationship with creation by hearing us, remembering us, and meeting us in our relationships with one another." (p.15)

The reason why everything involves theology is that everything involves relationships. From the beginning, this has always been about relationships, I-Thou, I-Me, and I-we. It is the reason I am a counselor; it is the reason I am a pastor. For me, theology is so many things that it cannot be seperated from life, theology is life and life theology. Think about it for a moment and name one thing that cannot be seen in a theological light.

I think of the meeting we had this morning with the staff from a local church. Their sense of feeling overwhelmed by the growth of their church and the needs of their congregation was palpable. Theologically, their struggles are the struggles of every person, what does it mean to be faithful to the call of God in this world; and how do I mediate that call with the fear that wells up inside?

I think of the woman who constantly smothers me at the church where I work. Always at my heels, reminding me that I am "her little angel." Her husband passed away almost 18 months ago and the stability in her life has never been the same. Her struggles with grief and what it means to believe in a God who would "take" the person she loves from her are greater than I can imagine.

I think of all of the lives that intersect mine on a daily basis. A colleague once told me that the reason why her counseling practice was pastoral is because the ground on which she and her clients walk is holy. True, but isn't all of the ground we walk on holy? Is there anywhere that we can go to escape the groans of creation, to escape the feeling that God is with us?

We are all on this planet together, and the life that we lead speaks of the theology we believe. Theology is the language of a journey with the Other; theology is the background in the pictures of our lives; theology is what and how and why I choose to relate to others; theology is meaning in the meaningless, hope in the hopeless, life in the darkest of shadows. It's all theology...