So I haven’t decided if this is going to be a ridiculously long post or if I am going to split this into a couple different posts—I’m currently writing this in a word document as I’m on an airplane, but we’ll see how I am inspired when I actually go to post this tomorrow! I haven’t written in quite awhile—and have actually received comments from a couple of you asking me when I’m going to have something new to read—I didn’t even know people faithfully checked this page, so to my faithful readers, thank you! And I’m sorry for being so delinquent in my writing! I can blame it on class work, and finals, but really laziness and a lack of inspiration also have played a part too!
So winter quarter is officially over, and it was pretty much insane right from the beginning. Classes were a lot of work, but we also had a ton of extra events for the Presby community that took up a lot of time planning and organizing. It just felt busy from day 1, and I never felt like I even came close to being caught up until I turned in my last final paper. Mom and Dad had a business trip to Maui scheduled for this past week and had invited me to join them. I of course jumped at the opportunity & then realized it was finals week, not spring break, so that meant trying to turn in all of my work early, which sounded totally do-able about 2 months ago—and about a week ago sounded like the most ridiculous idea I have ever had. But, somehow I managed to get everything finished, turned in, and on Tuesday I hopped on a plane and spent the past 5 days relaxing in Hawaii. It was a wonderful trip…and I have more thoughts/pictures on that, so see the post below (Keeping Our Eyes Open).
This quarter found me figuring out a new passion of mine that I didn’t realize I had—preaching. This quarter also found me discovering one of the most difficult and frustrating things I have ever done—preaching. I took homiletics this quarter, and supposedly learned how to write a sermon…what they don’t tell you is how unbelievably difficult and aggravating this process can be. I can research just fine. Give me a passage and I’ll somehow figure out some cool historical background information on it, I can tell you if there is anything interesting in the Greek grammar of the passage, I can talk about who the original recipients of the letter were etc. But, the process of taking all that information and putting it into a message for people, a message that is not simply a lecture on the historical background of a passage of scripture but a message that actually speaks to their present situations is enough to drive me to tears each time. I love to write, and I love to speak, but somehow this process of sermon writing is unbelievably overwhelming to me. Yet I still love it. Because, it is a time when I am forced to say “ok God, I cannot do this on my own. I have nothing to say to this audience on my own, I need you to give me your words, I need you to help me figure out how to frame this in a way that people can hear it.” And what absolutely shocks me, is that every single time this has happened, God has been faithful. He does speak, sometimes not on my time schedule, but God does speak, He does eventually help me craft my research into a message, and I get to deliver a sermon that I know I did not write on my own. It is a crazy experience—one that I can’t often describe, but each time I am more and more amazed at how faithful He is. In April I’m preaching again at First Pres, Burbank, and am tackling a passage from the book of Revelation—which I am very excited about…so stay tuned J
I am also really looking forward to next quarter because I have decided to try slowing down a bit. I am only going to take 2 classes instead of the 4 I was originally registered for, and I am hoping to be able to spend more time experiencing different aspects of ministry in my internship because I feel like I just did not have the time this past quarter to really learn as much as I could have in this fabulous opportunity I have to serve on a church staff before I am thrown into my own church to sink or swim! I also hope to slow down a bit and be more intentional about keeping in touch with those who I have pretty much managed to ignore this quarter in my self-centered busy-ness—so to those of you who I have not done a fabulous job of keeping in touch with, I’m sorry and I am hoping spring will look a little different for me!
Anyways—I’m on my way back from Hawaii, and because I left early during finals I still have a whole week off before class starts!
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