10 years

In an ongoing effort to reorganize my filing cabinets, last night I spent a couple of hours going through drawer #3 of filing cabinet #2 - the divinity school drawer. As I looked back over my class notes, papers, sermon manuscripts, sermon evaluations, Greek and Hebrew quizzes, and exams, I thought about the 4 1/2 challenging yet rewarding years that I spent working on my Master of Divinity degree at Beeson. Reading through the comments that my professors wrote on my papers and sermon manuscripts and the observations my peers recorded on sermon evaluation forms was affirming but also a bit unsettling, because they prompted me to consider whether I have been a good steward of my gifts during the five years that have passed since I earned my degree. 

It was startling to realize that it has been a decade - ten years this month, in fact - since I sensed God was calling me into the ministry. How time flies. When I responded to God's call, I had no idea what He had in store for me - I simply recognized that He was asking me to prepare for something. While I was in seminary, I developed a pithy response to the inevitable question, "What are you going to do next?" My standard answer was, "God is dealing with me on a need-to-know basis, and apparently I don't need to know." And now in the spring of 2009, ten years after my call, God continues to deal with me on a need-to-know basis. I find that I am less comfortable with this arrangement today than I was five years ago, but undoubtedly God is still trying to teach me what it means to trust in Him with all my heart and lean not on my understanding. Direct my paths, Lord.