“One of the corrosive dimensions of modernity was . . . that ideas transform apart from practices. Part of moving beyond modernity is retrieving things we have largely forgotten as a culture: that there are rich treasures in the ancient ways, and that we are transformed by our thinking, yes, but not apart from practices – and we are transformed by practices, yes, but not apart from thinking.”

~ from Brian McLaren in an interview on EverydayLiturgy.com in 2008.

McLaren identifies one of the “corrosive dimensions of modernity” as “the sense that ideas transform apart from practices.”  His point is that ideas cannot change anything without an accompanying practice. There is value in thinking, but it remains only a thought if there is no regimen of practice.

This reminded me that I love ideas, but I don’t have a strong theology of action.  It’s theology without legs.

Orthodoxy (right doctrine) is crippled without orthopraxy (right action).  The hope is that my view of my Christian faith would gradually become more and more of both (though if I were to have a leaning, let it be toward faith as a way of life).

How can I accomplish that over the next 10 years if I am not doing anything about that now?