A friend of mine gave me this little chap as gift; I believe that he comes from Zimbabwe and he sits on the book shelf over my desk. I was told when I received the gift that the piece it titled “The Thinker” and I love him, whenever I sit pondering over how to word a challenging email or craft the perfect sermon, I glance up at this little chap and pray for clarity of thought. When I started my ministerial training 25 years ago, I sat in a room full of people, many of whom had degrees and even doctorates and I felt completely ignorant as the lecturers used words that I had to write down and look for their meaning in a dictionary when I got back to my room.
We were told that we would be taught strategies for theological reflection, the art of trying to grapple with biblical texts and interpret their meaning and I confess to feeling completely overwhelmed; I was the son of a mill worker with possibly average school certificates and 25 years of business experience and here I was in my 40s studying for a degree, was I mad?
Over the years, I have become more of a thinker and continually ask myself questions like:
What does it mean to be Christian in the modern world?
Are things that trouble and challenge me part of God’s plan?
Who is God and do I believe in the kind of God that people think that I do?
My little friend reminds me constantly about the importance of questioning, of trying to grapple with the big questions in life and the small and insignificant ones. Theological Reflection has become central to my life and I believe that it is central to the lives of all people of faith to think about how we can be effective Christians in the modern world.