Where I’ve Been …
Well, I’ll bet you’re surprised to se ME here.
It’s been a little while. Let me fill you in on what has happened in my absence. First of all, I finished my Master’s Degree.
Yeah, I know. Viva me.
But like many things in life, there is a somewhat unexpected change of plans in the works.
I don’t know about you guys, but over the course of my life I have made a list of things I was never going to do. I don’t mean the big list, like “I’m never going to kill someone” or “I’m never going to cheat on my spouse”. I mean the small, personal one. It has things in it like “I’m never going to live in a trailer park” or “I’m never going to enlist in the military”.
Well, up to this point I have done everything on my “never do” list, except for two things. One of those was that I would never be rich. That one is debatable. Financially speaking, I’m wealthier than most of the world just because I live in North America, but I was thinking rich by North American standards, which implies multiple large houses and a number of European cars. We’re still waiting to see of God’s sense of humor holds out on that one.
The other was that I would never go into full-time ministry. I have seen the lives of my friends that are Clergy, I just didn’t want to deal with the hassle, or put my family in the spotlight 24-7. I suppose that I should have started putting two and two together when it even occurred to me to say I would never do it.
To make a long story short, I started my first classes this week for what will eventually be my Master’s of Divinity. My Ordination Service is being held at my church on September 17th. And by January I should be in the US Army Reserves as a Chaplain Candidate. In addition, Mrs. E. and I have been contacted by one of our former churches. They want us to come up and help start a new church in another community. We have, in principle, agreed to do it, but that’s a long story I’ll tell later if you want to know.
Of course, I’d be a pretty lousy Pastor if I didn’t try to take advantage of this moment to turn your attention toward Christ. I turned my back on him at about 15, but I was compelled to surrender at about 20. I know that my denomination teaches that once you have said a little prayer you are hooked up for life, but I also know that it isn’t about the little prayer. It’s about the relationship. I’m not going to hammer anyone on this. I just want you to think about it.
Well, that’s the update. If you want more details, I’ll be glad to provide them, but I was trying (unsuccessfully) to keep this short. In the interim, I will try (once again) to start blogging on a regular basis.
E.