Posted 11:00 AM by Blah blah

A New Life: the Seminary
From our cowriter Ang's blog, August 22, 2002:

I just moved in yesterday to my seminary dorm. Today was orientation and registration for new students. Classes start Monday...

What a wild ride it has been the last month! I suppose it all began with a cross-country road trip which was stopped short by an accident in, of all places, Laurel Mississippi. My car was totaled, but, thank God, nobody was hurt.

If only the accident were the worst of my troubles. It was, in fact, only a harbinger of the trial to come. The course of events over the past 20 days, which I'm unable to discuss in detail in this forum, have left me shipwrecked emotionally and spiritually. Discouraged and weak, confused and hurt, lonely and misunderstood--that's the best way to describe my current state of mind. I have almost no strength left. I have nothing left to give. The only thing left for me is to offer this broken mess of my heart and soul to God, hoping that he can do something---anything---good with it. To cling to God with all that remains of my will.

And really, what am I doing here? I often wonder if it makes sense for me, a fairly liberal, wacky, and nonconformist Christian, to come to this seminary, a fairly straight-laced, conservative institute in the South [Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary]. The incongruity of this pairing isn't lost on those who know me well and have spiritual authority over me. I commented to my pastor in Los Angeles that I feared being misunderstood---that folks may not understand why it is that I do things the way I do them or say things the way I say them. His reply: "Just tell them you're crazy! That should explain most of it." As for my pastor in Boston, he offered to put $5 into a betting pool various church members were putting together for how long it would take before I either quit or get kicked out of seminary. His estimate: 2 months. The shortest bid there starts at 2 weeks. And my father, himself a pastor, has warned me that my ideas are so extreme that if I ever pastored a church, I would lose the orthodox members and turn into a pseudo-cult.

Thankfully, God has not been absent during this time. I can see the goodness of His provision in the arrangements in seminary (from big things like providing an awesome advisor and a cool roommate, to small things like broadband Internet access in my dorm room). I hear His guidance and encouragement in deeply powerful and gripping ways through preachers and teachers in the various churches I have visited. And despite the trials and crisis in my life, I'm continually sustained by a strangely deep peace about the entire situation. There is much joy, comfort and consolation from God, whenever I turn to receive it. Praise and Glory to Him!

Here are some fun facts:

- I got into trouble with the seminary ethics committee before even showing up on campus. Apparently, someone informed them about an 8-year-old web page of mine which I had forgotten about. I removed the web page before they would let me enroll.
- No shorts are allowed on campus.
- If you must wear shorts while working out, you must also wear spandex underneath
- My roommate, Vern**, is studying social work and ministry-based evanglism, with a specialization in inner-city. Vern met his fiancee over the Internet. He claims that at first, she stalked him through his web site.
- Just today, I met Jed**, another seminary student who wants to do what I want to do. He started on the M.Div track as preparation to pastor, but is now seeking to teach philosophy full-time at a secular university.
- I've registered for five classes this term: hermeneutics, systematic theology, philosophy of religion, apologetics, and a class taught by my advisor, Jethro**, about Christianity, the Arts, and Pop Culture.

(** These are fake names.)