I thought that jazz was complicated, and then, I started listening to it...
I thought it sounded like a bunch of weird notes played at warp speed with a drummer that kept on hitting on the wrong spots...
Then, I got the hang of it, I started to enjoy the way the went from one target note to the other...
Then, I started to experiment those paths...
Then, I started to understand how they had created those paths (the theory behind it)
Now, I play jazz, and I'll tell you the truth, through miles DAVIS' words: "I'll play it first, then tell you what it is..."
Theory is not something on its own, it's to expand the bounderies of your playing... You don't learn words one by one reading the dictionnary, you eventually learn them when you need them, and look up for it if you can't decipher its meaning...
You'll try to put them in your sentences at first, thinking "here's a good spot where I can show my knowledge", and after a while, you just say it, without thinking about it...
That's the same with theory...