heavenly minded and of earthly good

"You can be so heavenly minded that you're of no earthly good."

I remember chafing hearing people say that when I was in high school. The heavenly mind, the mind going deep into the resources of the Christian faith, that was of the most earthly good, I thought. Still do.

But I knew what those southern preachers were saying. I'd met enough people who loved obscure, apparently useless ideas. I'd been a part of enough arguments about theology and philosophy to know that you could separate heavenly ideas from earthly life. There is such a thing as an ivory tower, but it's a mindset and not a place.

Recently, I've had more and more of a desire to pull ideas that sometimes seem up in the clouds down into more plain view. I want these ideas in plain view because I believe they matter. Seminarians can be guilty of parsing deep things without feeling. But the answer is to put yourself in a position to feel, not to toss out your lexicon.

Here's to thinking and feeling.