Bittersweet Break
Due to either brilliant planning or pathetic procrastination, my Westminster Spring Break is turning out to be more about remembering what it's like to be a full-time student than what it's like to be a teacher with a week off. On the docket:
Listen to seven 45-minute lectures, read five chapters, complete a study guide, and take the mid-term for my Ancient & Medieval Church History class
Write a 5-page paper for my Children's Ministry class
Write two CD reviews and a 10-page paper for my Music & Theology class
I'm spending today at Covenant with two main purposes in mind:
To get away and focus (the Catacombs are a bit too chilly and noisy for extended periods of time studying)
To schedule some academic advising in response to Covenant's publication of next year's class schedule (if all goes well, I may actually be able to finish my Masters degree in Theological Studies a year from now)
I'm preparing myself this morning for somewhat of a bittersweet encounter, namely going to my first seminary chapel all year. In addition to seeing lots of familiar faces and sitting through an optional mid-week chapel whose participants are actually interested (unlike the mandatory weekly high school chapels I'm used to refereeing), my friend Ronnie is preaching.
Ronnie and I started seminary in the same Beginning Greek class almost three years ago. He (along with Rob, Tom, Mitchell, Josh, Mike, and dozens of others) are graduating this May with an actual Masters of Divinity degree after 36 solid months of ridiculous class loads and more Hebrew than I ever wanted (or was able) to endure.
While I'm happy and proud of all of them for gutting it out these past three years, I confess I'm more than a little sheepish about showing up today in my part-time, four-year, non-language, theological studies kind of way. Though none of them possess a superiority complex because of our divergent seminary paths, I (like the 14-year-old I perpetually think of myself as) am able to provide enough of an inferiority complex for all of us.
Indeed, I'm that gifted.
That said, I'm looking forward to what God will teach me today - about his unconditional love, about his sovereign plan, about the community of his people. I need to learn more about these things today, as they may be the only things that get me through this week of full-time seminary student studies with hope instead of drudgery as my companion.