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.