I ended today with much more energy. What a better feeling! Two classes and work, not too bad. Throw in homework and it starts to get interesting. :) Sam asked about my getting a Facebook page. I will talk about that tomorrow. This one got a little long on me. (Comment added last.)


Not a lot new happening today. Trying to keep up with homework. I know that falling behind will present real challenges so I am working hard to keep caught up. Classes today were History of Christianity, which is a real interesting class. The story of how we got to where we are today is captivating. You know that God had His hand in it because it could have gone so wrong at so many places. In fact, in about the first 300 years it is amazing it survived at all. When you have emperors looking to kill you as an enemy of the state and anything that is bad anywhere gets blamed on you, life could be pretty challenging. There we certainly a lot of disincentives to Christianity in the early times. Of course all of that was completely overcome by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The other class is Pastoral Care. One might ask are we caring for others or ourselves? Good question, both will need care in our ministry. The big point right now in class is that when we find ourselves in the Wilderness (code word for change, anxiety, hurt, pain, life changes, anything that takes us out of our comfort zone) God always finds us. It may not be quickly and it will probably require discernment, but He always finds us and He leads us to His will. We may not choose to go, but that is on us. It’s that whole free will thing we seem to have so much trouble with. He will continue to lead us to His will and love us just as much the tenth/hundredth/thousandth/millionth time we go back as the first time. It is very good stuff! We have to bring our favorite bible verse to class with us on Friday and be ready to talk about how it impacted our call to seminary and how it impacts our life. I am not going to tell you mine now. I want to hear from some of you what your favorite verse is. I will post mine with my Friday post.

Our History Professor asked us if we are talking about the Churchwide Synod Assembly votes on campus (http://www.elca.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/Office-of-the-Secretary/ELCA-Governance/Churchwide-Assembly/Actions.aspx ). Please click on this link to see more information on these votes; click on links: “Social Statement..” at the top and Recommendation on Ministry Policies a little below the Social Statement to read what these votes were about. Back to the program….The answer is we are not at this point. Of course there is a lot to still be worked out in November when they try to develop the details about how they are going to implement the changes. It has kind of been the big white elephant sitting in the room so far. Nobody really wants to talk about it in fear of hurting feelings and building walls. Of course, we need to be able to talk about it without building walls and still be family when the discussion is over. In talking with Pastor here we apparently have the ability through class meetings to request a campus wide talk if something is of interest to us. We have a class meeting on the 24th. I think it would be a great time to request that we have a campus wide discussion about this. Of course, the higher classes have already had a campus wide discussion about this as they requested the same thing. I have looked forward to coming to a place of higher learning TO discuss this. I look forward to some very persuasive discussions in a very civil manner. Of course the decision has already been made. That might change the manner of the discussions. The HUGE thing that has not been determined is how everyone will react to this vote. These actions will come as individual, congregational, and maybe even synodical in nature. I know that emotions are very high right now but I hope everyone gives this some discernment before decisions are made and very drastic actions with long term ramifications are taken. I pray for active hearts and minds and slow actions.  I leave you with this:
Beg for knowledge; plead for insight. Look for it as hard as you would for silver or some hidden treasure. If you do, you will know what it means to fear the Lord and you will succeed in learning about God. It is the Lord who gives wisdom; from Him come knowledge and understanding. Proverbs 2:3-6 GNB (Good News Bible)