Waiting

It's hard to believe, but in ten days (or less!), I will have submitted all of my coursework for my first semester of seminary. I have learned a lot and am so grateful for the opportunity. I have two more movies to watch, two papers to write, and one test to take. And a couple more classes and lectures too. Oh, and some reading. And studying. Well, I guess there's more than I first thought! In other news, I found out today I'm eligible for a grant that I thought I wasn't eligible for this semester. So, I'm delighted and so thankful to have some extra money going into my school account.

I've been thinking about waiting. In a few weeks we will celebrate the New Year with parties and fun and most of us will take some time to think about all that has been and then what is going to be. Many people will come up with resolutions or goals for the coming year and it is pretty exciting to imagine what may be. Christians around the world celebrated the new year recently too, with the First Sunday of Advent. It was very quiet. You may have missed it. It was in the busy weekend of Thanksgiving. Or maybe it's easier to remember if I say it was the day between Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. You know, after Black Friday, which is so good we have start on Thursday... because we just can't wait (but I digress).

Christians start the year with the Season of Advent. During Advent, one of the things we consider is waiting. We remember our brothers and sisters of years ago waiting for the coming of the Messiah. We remember that we too are waiting for the coming of Jesus. I think what is aggravating about waiting, and why we have so much trouble waiting, is that waiting seems like wasted time. We only have 24 hours per day and we have them pretty much chock-full of stuff to do, so we can't waste time. Even when we aren't pressed for time, leisure time is so odd that it's difficult to adjust to not being in a hurry. I've been thinking that there must be a better way, and I think we can see how by looking at Advent. During Advent, many churches light candles around a wreath, one candle per week until the center candle is lit on Christmas Eve. Each candle represents something; many churches use the candles to represent peace, hope, joy, and love. So, while we wait during Advent, it would be good to learn and practice peace, hope, joy, and love. Of course, it's hard to practice anything during December unless we are intentional. I've been challenging myself to use my "wait" time to consider how I can be peaceful, hopeful, joyful, and loving. It starts in my own heart. On some days, that's where it stays because, honestly, I need peace, hope, joy, and love too. But some days, it can spill out. When following the example of Christ, life isn't a waste of time, not even when we are waiting.

Looking for Dawn

This is a great little story that Foster relays in his book Prayer.
   
    A venerable old sage once asked his disciples, "How can we know when the darkness is leaving and the dawn is coming?"
    "When we can see a tree in the distance and know that it is an elm and not a juniper," ventured one student. "When we can see an animal and know that it is a fox and not a wolf," chimed in another.
    "No," said the man, "those things will not help us."
    Puzzled, the students demanded, "how then can we know?"
    The master teacher drew himself up to his full statue and replied quietly, "we know the darkness is leaving and the dawn is coming when we can see another person and know that this is our brother or our sister; for otherwise, no matter what time it is, it is still dark."

Lots of Learning Going on... now about living and loving

The past few weeks my New Testament class has been focused on the very early Christian church. We've read the New Testament books Acts of the Apostles (I'd call it the Acts of the Holy Spirit, but I'm not really saying I've got a better name than the one given...just a thought), Romans, 1 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, Philemon. We've learned about the challenges of the church, the grappling with the covenant of the law and the covenant of faith, with the inclusion of Gentiles into the Jewish sect, etc. Such a difficult life's work for the early Christian leaders, and yet it was so productive.

In Theology and Film, the past few weeks we've watched Jesus of Montreal, God's Not Dead, Children of Men, Spotlight, and Star Wars VII for next class. We've been listening, watching, analyzing, discussing what things we can learn from our cultural contexts, both secular culture and Christian culture. We've discussed how our cultures understand Jesus, the church and mission, human value, meaning of life, etc. and what our Christian theology has to say in affirmation of the views presented in film and how it might instead offer something different.

In our Disciple Formation class we created a group covenant and have been reading some Psalms and learning a lot about the practices and life of prayer. We have supported, encouraged, and challenged one another within our Christian community of unity and love.

So that's what I've been learning and doing. How does it affect me? How do I synthesize all of this into real life and ministry? That's the big question. Sometimes I look around and see the amazing work that God is doing in and through me and in and through our community and world, and I can see comparisons to the amazing work that God did in the early church. Other times, I look around and think... I don't know what to say. What is going on? I grieve, with tears, physical pain, and everything, at the ugliness I see. I hope for unity, especially for and from the body of Christ. In my own experience with church it's been expressed to me: you don't belong here; it was relatively minor for me, but it occurred. How much more so do others feel rejection? I've also experienced loving acceptance! I pray that everyone will feel the love of God through Jesus Christ and experience it through the Church. I repent for the ways I've gotten it wrong. When I've failed to listen, when I've wanted to be understood rather than seeking to understand. I pray for those who I still don't understand, those with fears that I don't feel. God loves us all.

Scriptures and prayers for today from my devotional book are focused on love. Over and over in his New Testament letters, Paul focuses on love. The love we are to have that is from God.  Jesus was a sacrifice of love for all and Paul calls us to sacrifice in love for each other as well. Even when I don't know what to say, the Holy Spirit speaks to me through the Word. I'll share parts of the scriptures and one of the prayers from this morning.

It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you—for you were the fewest of all peoples. It was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your ancestors -Deut 7:6-8a

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. -Eph 3:14-19

Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me. I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid..." -John 14:23-27

"We admit and confess, God of love, that we need you. We pray that your love might draw us and lead us near. We pray that your love might infuse our lives, our families, our churches, and our communities so they may reflect your goodness, kindness, mercy, sacrifice, and friendship. Love of God, rain down on us today. Amen." From Dawn to Dark, A Book of Christian Prayer by R Douglas Jones.

Invasion of Purity

Niels Larsen Stevns's 1913 depiction of
Jesus curing the leper

This week I keep coming back to something I read in a text book, and then was challenged with the same concept by our New Testament professor. I want to share the thought and allow you to think on it too.

One of the themes of the Gospel of Mark is Jesus proclaiming the Kingdom of God. One of the new things that comes with the Kingdom of God is an "invasion of purity" that is a challenge to the traditional view in Israel that unclean must be kept separate from clean/holy. People who were unclean (ie: lepers, people with health problems like the woman with an issue with blood, and all people at one time or another) stayed away from other people because the uncleanliness they carried was contagious. Touching an unclean person or thing caused the clean person to become unclean and they'd have to go through a ritual of some sort to become clean again.

In this new Kingdom of God, Jesus reversed the idea of uncleanliness being contagious, and instead, holiness became contagious. When Jesus touched unclean people he remained clean; the unclean became clean. Revolutionary! This new system allowed Jesus to associate with everyone.

As members of this new kingdom, it is our mission to be like Jesus and absorb uncleanliness around us, rather than becoming unclean, and spread holiness by unleashing the power of forgiveness and restoration. How are you doing that today?

Beauty, the early church, and the first test

We've been talking about beauty, so I decided I'd look for
beauty on my drive. When I saw these cows in the harvested
corn field, I pulled over to take a picture. I remember how
happy it makes the cow to be let into the corn. My New
Testament professor and I were talking today about how
beautiful it is that God created animals with the ability to
express joy. We also talked about baling hay and walking
beans. Neither of those seemed to hold the same beauty!

I continue to see seminary as a gift from God to me. It's a lot of work and occupies many, many hours, but I'm learning a lot and growing with a community of people that I will cherish for the rest of my life I'm sure. This week, in Disciple Formation, we talked about beauty. We often think of God in terms of love and truth and justice, but forget that God is also true beauty and as we recognize beauty in creation, we are recognizing something of God.

Another thing I've been thinking about this week is what it must have been like to be part of worship in the very early Christian church. I'd never realized or considered, until recently, that the Gospels weren't written until after many of the New Testament letters had been written. All the early churches were operating without the Gospel writings, so when they gathered together, people would bring original hymns, prayers, and thoughts to spur one another on in faith. That's how we got some of the hymns in the New Testament texts. I think about how often many of us are reluctant to volunteer to prepare a devotion or scripture or prayer for a group even though we have so many resources to draw from! These early church people didn't have the resources we take for granted. I imagine they had quite an openness to the Holy Spirit that we would find refreshing (well, unless we find it scary). Anyway, it's been something good to ponder.

This week will be my first test in many years. It's in New Testament and will cover Matthew, Mark, the "synoptic problem", basic exegesis, and several New Testament literary forms like midrash, hymns, genealogies, miracle stories, proclamation stories, pesher, yada yada yada (no, that's not really one). I look forward to having the first test behind me, but studying for a test is a great way to practice articulating what I'm learning, so I welcome it.

I also did my first film review, you can see it here (spoiler alert: it spoils the film Room, so if you're going to watch it, don't watch the review). Without the having the text book we used, the review might not make as much sense as it did to my peers (and thus might be horribly boring), but I share it as a way to include you all in my journey if you're interested. Next I'll be working on a discussion guide, which will have different content than the film review, but over the same movie. It's been a challenge for me to think in a way that evaluates messages in art. It's not at all the 1s and 0s of my computer science training.

In other parts of life, I continue to enjoy working at church. I preached for the 2nd time a week ago. I have been working on my interview questions for an interview in December. At that interview I may be recommended to become a certified candidate for ordination, the first baby step in a long process. Also, Zoe enjoyed playing 8th grade volleyball this fall and is eager to start swimming again later this month. Lea is in tumbling for the first time and loves it. She lost a molar today. Both are doing well in school and enjoy time with friends. This is probably the best October ever for Ryan. Go Cubs Go!

Fall classes are in full swing

Our family took this picture on a beautiful night in the
Quad Cities while we waited for the Rend Collective
concert to start. It was part of our 17th wedding
anniversary celebration over Labor Day weekend.

Today marked the end of the third week of classes for fall semester, so it's high time that I write an update! To be honest, I've been somewhat overwhelmed at getting into the groove of a routine that works with work, home, and school, so I haven't even thought about blogging (well, I've thought about it, but realize it's actually not the thought that counts).

First things first, here are some things I'm learning, one item for each class:

1. People, particularly theologians, can learn about God by looking around. We can see God revealed in nature, in people, and in cultures (though church people often throw culture under the bus trying to be "in the world but not of the world"). One of my classes is Theology and Film where we talk about how to put movies into dialogue with our faith and vice versa. Movies have a lot of "common grace" or "general revelation", that is, they allow us to see goodness and we believe there is no goodness apart from God.
2. The New Testament is written from a variety of viewpoints. In Intro to New Testament we are looking at the Gospels right now and began by talking about the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) and the issue of how they are so similar, and yet often different and how to deal with that "synoptic problem". One theory is that Mark was written first and then Matthew and Luke used Mark as a source along with another source (called Q) and each their own other sources too. They each record things a little differently (and sometimes quite differently or omit things all together) for several reasons, but one being they had different intended audiences. The differences seem more troublesome to us modern readers because we don't like conflicting stories, we want to know the truth. Ancient readers were less concerned with accurate details and more concerned with the stories conveying the general message of the person they were writing about. The Jesus represented in each of the gospels together represent the real Jesus, and they're all important for us to understand God and God's kingdom so I'm thankful for all of them.
3. In my Disciple Formation class I've been able to practice several forms of prayer that I hadn't before. We are reading Richard Foster's book Prayer. We also have used meditation during walks and while coloring to help us spend time in God's presence. 

If you're interested in what a typical week in seminary looks like for me, I'll tell you (and if you're not interested, I'll tell you anyway, or you can just skip the rest): Tue-Fri I work in the mornings and in the afternoons/evenings I read, read, read, read and then write or watch lectures online (of course, I also cook, do laundry, go to ball games, church meetings, rehearsals, etc). I set aside some time on the weekend for myself and family and Sunday worship, but it hasn't been much time so far, with school work needing to be done by the end of the weekend. 

Mondays are my favorite: I get up and leave Tipton around 6:35ish to arrive on campus around 8:00 for fellowship. Then we have morning prayer at 8:30. At 9:00 I go to New Testament, followed by chapel and then lunch (the lunch is provided by staff, professors, etc or someone, I should find out who feeds us...). After lunch is Film and Theology and then Disciple Formation. The end of the day is a brief blessing and sending service (5-10 minutes) around 4:30 and then I go to the library for awhile to create a list of my assignments and schedule for home/work/school for the upcoming week. I get back to Tipton around 7:00.

I appreciate your prayers for me and Ryan and the girls. Please continue to pray for us as we journey together. You're a blessing to me! Experience the love of God today and then share it with someone.

Expectations

On the way to the Iowa State Fair on Wednesday our family was having a discussion about expectations and how what we expect shapes what we look for and what we look for shapes what we see. For example, if I expect the girls to be squirrely or out of control at inappropriate times, I'll look for that behavior so I can intervene to stop it, and since I'm looking for it, I'll probably see it.

The conversation caused me to think about what expectations I have right now for God. What do I expect God to be doing? Most of the time, I'd answer this with things that I expect God to be doing in the lives of those around me. I expect God to be comforting my friend who lost his dad. I expect God to be working in the hearts and lives of those in our congregation. At a closer level, I expect God to be helping our family as we transition to the start of the school year and as we process through a tough season of anniversaries of loss.

At seminary we read Psalm 139 many times. My prayer is that I also expect God to be doing this:

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
 test me and know my thoughts.
See if there is any wicked way in me,
 and lead me in  the way everlasting.
-Psalm 139:23-24

As I expect, I look, and as I look, I will see the ways God is searching me, knowing me, testing me, and leading me. I expect that I will respond with obedience.

What are your expectations?

---
Note: I struggled with the idea of stating expectations of God. God is so big and beyond my capacity to comprehend. I'm not intending to make God fit into my expectations because that would be ridiculous. But, I do want to interact with God in a way that indicates we have a relationship and relationships are full of expectations.

Sinsinawa Mound Center in rural Wisconsin

Today our God's Redemptive Mission class got to go to Sinsinawa Mound, a Dominica Sisters convent just inside Wisconsin. We got about three and a half hours to spend away from our studies doing whatever we wanted to do to connect with God. It was wonderful. I spent most of the time on hiking trails enjoying nature. I made a couple phone calls to connect with people I'd been thinking about, and did a little prayer coloring (no, I'd never done that before). Several of the things I experienced I'm not going to share, because either I don't want to or time is too short (I still have reading and paper to write tonight), but I want to share a few things.

First, I saw a cute little blue butterfly and I wanted to take a picture but it wouldn't hold still with its wings open. After a minute or two trying, I gave up and just enjoyed looking at it. A minute or two later, I saw a huge, beautiful yellow butterfly (pictured). So, I realize that if I'd taken the time to capture the first, I may have missed the one that was more beautiful. There's a lesson in that.

Second, I was thinking about how when people do landscaping (not me because I don't do much landscaping) we tend to pick all the pretty parts of nature and arrange them just right based on what we think looks the best. Outside in the woods, in real nature, things are much more of a mess. There are beautiful flowers and insects and other lovely things, but there are also rotting trees, giant limbs that block the path, piles of brush, etc. That stuff isn't so pretty, and isn't as appreciated, but the mess is also natural and necessary. It's real. Reminds me that sometimes life is messy too, and that's natural and necessary as well.

Third, the trail I was on ran alongside a county road at one point and there was a driveway. The driveway had ominous signs saying "Private Property: NO Trespassing", but the gates were all open. In John 10:9-10 Jesus says, "I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." Because of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, all who believe can go in where it formerly said "NO Trespassing". The gate is wide open for access to full and abundant life!

It was a wonderful day. The weather was great; a little warm, but in the shade of the trees, it was really nice. Thank you, God, for all your many blessings!

A little mandala I colored while praying for a loved one.

Week One was Wonderful

The first week of my first August Intensive at seminary is over. It's been refreshing and wonderful while also exhausting and difficult. I am going to pick a few highlights to share with you.

1. 

   We each received a shell out of
   a bowl of water at the Renewal of
   Baptism service. It's a good
   tangible reminder that we belong
   to God.

   God is big. I am pretty conservative (that's something else I've learned). Our cohort is a great group of diverse people; we have different gifts, backgrounds, and specific callings but one Lord. We are also a fun and loving group intent on learning together from one another. On Monday, we celebrated our baptism and affirmed our calls together. On Friday, in "God's Redemptive Mission" class we talked about Christendom, when the church and state were merged and spreading together, and about the Crusades where non-Christians were killed. It wasn't new knowledge, but it never gets easier to hear. We've been reading Psalm 139 every day in class and on Friday, I was struck by the last half of verse 8: "if I make my bed in Sheol [think "Hell"], you [God] are there." The Church has certainly made her bed in hell a time or two, but God hasn't left. He is big...bigger than our inadequacies and mistakes.
2. The Bible has a lot to say. Together with two from my cohort (and, incidentally, also from my suite), I took part in a reading contest on Wednesday evening. It's called the Mihelic Reading Competition. I have no idea what Mihelic means, maybe a name of someone? There's just not enough time to ask all the questions that run through my mind on any given day so I didn't find out. Anyway, we were give Habakkuk 3 to read as we would read in front of the congregation on a Sunday. Some of us did some opening remarks or prayed first, some used liturgical responses at the end, etc. There a prize associated with the contest, but it's not clear what the prize is (at least I don't know; another question I didn't find an answer to), but it's not announced until May. Hopefully it will be free tuition and room/board for next August intensive. :) Anyway, while I like competition, I didn't participate to win, but rather to have the experience. I figure that having an extra chance to read scripture in front of an audience is good, and it was. What I really enjoyed, though, was the experience of hearing all the other readers read the same passage. I believe there were about a dozen of us, so we heard the same scripture more than ten times. Each time, there was something new to hear. The same thing has occurred each day in class when we read the same Psalm. Note: if you're not reading your Bible often, get after it. Read and listen what God has to say to you.

3. 

   We went up the "steepest railroad track in the country" to get
   to this view. It is spectacular!

   Dubuque is beautiful. The river is so pretty. We went to a restaurant last night and ate on the patio overlooking the water. There were several boats out with their lights on. It was peaceful. Earlier yesterday we went to the farmer's market (it is HUGE) and then went up the rail to overlook the city. Again, it is so pretty to lookout over the bluff and see the river.
4. Graduate school is hard. You wouldn't know it after reading #3, but this intensive is intense! Except for one book for research methods, which I've determined to treat as a reference book, I'm now caught up on reading for where I should have been before Friday afternoon (it's Sunday afternoon - so two days "late"). We are in class 8-5:45 (except for chapel and lunch mid-day) and then have a few chapters to read and a paper to write each night. I told my professor that I feel like I need to write at the top of each paper "My apologies, Dr. Lewis. This paper is horrible." But really, I'm doing my best; there's lots of information and lots of formation. It's going well. 
5. I'm thankful for much! The seminary provides an excellent lunch each day, for which I'm very thankful because I wouldn't take the time to nourish myself as well as they do. I'm also thankful for my new friend Chrisy. She's a certified PiYo instructor so I get to do PiYo workouts with her to get my blood flowing in the mornings. I have wonderful suite-mates. We laugh and talk and cry together. The professors are excellent. They're super caring and always prepared. They work together well. I've enjoyed them all. My favorite part of the day is when we are led in scripture reading, prayer, meditation, etc by Dr. Forshey. This morning when we walked in to church, one of our professors was a greeter and she cried out "Yea, so happy to see you! These are more of my students!" and proceeded to give us hugs. I'm thankful for my family, those related to be by blood and those of my spiritual family. We are all in this together for the Glory of God. 

Thank you for your love and prayers. Thank you for reading. God bless each of you!

A new beginning is an ending

At the Mississippi River
in Dubuque, Iowa.

I am now an official graduate student, with a Student ID card, and everything! Late yesterday afternoon I arrived on campus for orientation at University of Dubuque Theological Seminary. I'm joined by about 30 other first-time students. Most are online students, but about 10 of us are new "residential" students (residential in the sense that we will come to class on campus once-per-week). Both online and residential students are on campus for this two-week intensive. The people I've met are wonderful, and I look forward to a rich time here.

Today I went to a Presbyterian worship service for the first time. It was nice; meaningful and liturgical with a good sermon about what we can learn from Rahab. After worship we stopped by the Mississippi River and then went to a state park for a picnic lunch and team-building on a low ropes course.

During lunch we all shared a little about ourselves in response to a few questions. One question was, what have you given up to be here? For some it was a career path, for others it was a family event (ie: missing a child's birthday), for others it was something spiritual or emotional that was standing in the way of submission. I shared that I have given up teaching at the high school in order to be a seminary student. I still grieve that loss; I enjoyed students and our learning together.

Tonight at dinner one of the professors, Dr. H., shared parts of TS Elliot's poem, Four Quartets:

What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from.
....
With the drawing of this Love and the voice of this Calling
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

I am reminded again of the constant nature of change. Of beginnings and endings that must exist together. I am reminded that beginnings are made possible by ends. I am thankful for endings.

My favorite part of the poem, at least for tonight, is the recognition that we arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. I begin this journey in obedience, "with the drawing of this Love and the voice of this Calling", and if I arrive in the same place again and yet see it as new, it will be a good place.

Thanks be to God.

We are all connected

Snowflake magnified by electron microscope.
Wikipedia Commons

This week I finished reading A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, by Donald Miller. If you are a writer, you might especially like this book since it's based on principles of story. In fact it's subtitled "How I learned to live a better story." In the book, Mr. Miller tells about the process of making an earlier book, Blue Like Jazz, into a movie. The analogy throughout the book is that our life is full of stories, and like stories our lives have characters who have ambitions, and inciting incidents, high points, and low points. The author of our stories is God, but like any good author will tell you, characters have a mind of their own, and as characters, we often steal the stories from God and try to write them ourselves. And then the stories become lame. The book was so boring at the beginning, I had to put it down and come back later several times because the stories were pointless. It wasn't until about half way through the book that I realized that pointlessness was intentional. Then I was amazed at the brilliance of it! It's good to be amazed.

Toward the end of the book, Miller brings up the fact that we are all connected, that my house is connected to yours. Today was yet another day of horrific news, with more police officers being shot, this time in Baton Rouge. I could get in the car, go out of the alley behind my house, drive for several hours, and end up at the driveway of one of those officer's homes. I could probably leave there and drive over to the house where the mom of the shooter lives. I could drive reasonably close to where powerful people live, like President Obama, and Bill and Melinda Gates. We are so closely connected.

Miller also reminds the reader that no two snowflakes are alike. They all start out as water vapor, and one thing that makes them unique is their journey. "The atmosphere is a turbulent place, and crystals tend to oscillate as they are blown around, so even different corners see slightly different environments." (See PBS NewsHour article for more.) We, too, are all unique due to our journeys. We have unique sets of experiences which give us perspectives that are different from one another. We have varying gifts and abilities. We have different preferences... and the list goes on.

May we work hard, because it will take hard work, to embody our connectedness while appreciating our variety. Let's quit trying to steal the story and instead cooperate with the great Author of us all.

When everything seems grim, figure out your roots

"The Vision of The Valley of The Dry Bones"
by Gustave Doré

You may be familiar with the popular spiritual, "Dem Bones". It's inspired by Ezekiel 37 and talks about dry bones coming to life. I've read the story before, and our choir sang the song in Jr High, but there are some things I learned when reading Newbigin's "A Walk Through the Bible" related to Ezekiel.

Ezekiel, a major prophet of the Old Testament lived at the same time as another major prophet, Jeremiah; Jeremiah lived in Jerusalem, and Ezekiel was with the portion of the Israelites that were captive in Babylon. Life looked pretty grim; they were in captivity, they were taking on some of the behaviors of their captors, and they didn't have hope; they'd been deserted, it seemed. They were "dead bones". And yet, a group of the faithful used the grim time to figure out where they'd come from. They dug through old records and created a vision for people to understand the covenant they had with God. "During these years of exile Jewish scribes and teachers brought together the ancient records of earlier days of the Exodus and of the judges and kings, and wrote those marvelous passages about the creation of the world" (Newbigin, pg38). By helping God's people understanding where they'd come from, and Who they'd come from, Ezekiel and the other teachers were able to lead the Israelites toward hope. Eventually, they renewed their covenant. The dry bones came alive again!

Some things in our culture seem pretty grim. Some things in the church seem pretty grim too. If the church were being more effective in the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ, I imagine our culture would be in better shape. It would be wise for all of us to look back at our collective history, see where we've been, and then have vision for where to go. We can be assured that we haven't been deserted. We have hope!

It's helpful too, as individuals to pause when life seems grim and remember our shorter history with God. How has God been with you in the past? What do you know about God based on your shared history? I trust that will also give you hope!

*Edited because I feel convicted to add this: When you take time to consider what your history has been with God, both individually and collectively, also be intentional about looking at your sin. Examine what you've done wrong, what you are doing currently that you shouldn't, and repent. Turn away from your sin. Quit it. Ask [and you shall receive] forgiveness.

Classes have begun!

Yesterday my first seminary classes began. This summer, between July 11 and Aug 26, I'll be taking two classes from the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary. The classes are Theological & Biblical Research (1 credit) and God's Redemptive Mission (4 credits). Online orientation is now winding down, and I've received the first assignments for God's Redemptive Mission. So, yesterday afternoon I read the first book, "A Walk Through the Bible," by Lesslie Newbigin. It was a great, and short, book that reminded me of "The Story" a little bit. Of course "The Story" is the text of the Bible, in chronological order and without repeats, and Newbigin's book wasn't. Instead, it's a brief chronological account of the story of the Bible allowing the reader to see a big picture of what the Bible is about, and thus, what God is like, and how we are called to be. It would be worth your time to read it (it's about $6 on Amazon).

Then we were asked to write a brief statement about what character or book of the Bible we found significant and post it to our class forum. Here's my submission:
Among many books and characters in the Bible that hold significance to me, I choose Moses today. Even from a place of power, Moses identified with his people, the Israelites, and then grew to know and love their God, even more than they did. His love for his people, and his strong relationship with God helped hold things together out in the desert. For a period of many weeks, while I was struggling to discern my call, I had Moses’ statement to God from Exodus 32:32 as wallpaper on my phone: “But now, if you will only forgive their sin—but if not, blot me out of the book that you have written.” It is that type of love for people, and relationship with God, that I seek to emulate.