I am no theologian, but I am a sinner and I suppose this makes it okay for me to write about things like this. Theology is just the way we see Jesus and, God Knows, I need to see Jesus.

I am captured by one recycled thought, a repeating theology that is changing me. A present theology. There are things, I am learning, that have the power to change us at once. I am calling them 180 Theologies--these things have the power to turn us from one direction to the other in immediacy. We are changed. We who were dead are now alive. These things are remarkable and astounding, miraculous to anyone who asks.

But there are also what I'm calling Present Theologies in my mind these days. The gerunds of the Christian grammar: being, ongoing, growing, being, being, being! The things that are happening. The things we understand at once to be finished, but we understand again that they are never fully finished. These things are miraculous too, I'm finding. Taking captive thoughts. Unveiling Christ to ourselves and others. Being built to be a dwelling place for the Spirit.

The cross is finished, has finished it for us, all of us.

But we aren't finished yet.

I love that. I love that!

It is so easy to catch ourselves in where things went wrong, which iota of the gospel we didn't understand, which theology failed, which principle led us down the wrong path. Instead, if we choose to meditate on the -ing of the gospel message, we are set up for a hope and a future. Rome wasn't built in a day, neither was Paul, and praise God, neither am I.