At the end of last semester, I was just about ready to throw my arms in the air and just walk away from school. I do not know exactly what it was, and I doubt it was any one thing that led me to feel disgruntled (to put it mildly) toward continuing my Seminary education.
Because of this, I did not do much this past summer. I was effectively a recluse, hiding away from the world. In a way, it was a pretty lame way to spend a summer. But it also gave me a chance to rebuild my resolve, to focus and find direction again.
I have now made it through one week of the fall semester at Emmanuel. This semester will be daunting to say the least. I have two classes that are reading intensive, one that is exclusively reading, and Hebrew (which is it's own nightmare). To sum it up, my nose will be in a book for a couple of hours each day in order for me to get everything read that needs to be. Despite this, I am rather excited about this semester and what it has to offer. I am looking forward to my classes, the discussions and the challenges that are presented. I might not feel this way in three months, but at least for now, operation "Summer Rejuvenation" seems to have worked.
On top of this, as mentioned before, I have started playing Ultimate again. And I will be working more than I have in the past as well, participating more heavily in church, and I want to spend more time playing with my little metal toys. In the end, this means that I really will not have much free time left to goof off. But I have found that I am usually the type of person who does better, not worse in such circumstances, and so I hope that I can finish out my classes at Emmanuel with strength and power.
I now understand why many ministers take sabbaticals. Sometimes we need simply to take some time away from our own lives and just let God heal us. We can quickly and easily become caught up in worry and fear about our lives, we can be led to frustration, anger or depression. We simply have to realize that while that time of healing and cleansing is good and necessary, when it is over, it becomes time once again to work diligently for the causes that surround us, for the goals set for us and the road ahead of us. It is certainly okay to take time to relax. But for me, the time of relaxing is over, and the harvest is here. It is time to go to work.
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