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<\/a><\/p>\nDr. Sue Liubinskas, who recently successfully defended her doctoral thesis on Paul and ethnography here at Asbury has graciously agreed to share her testimony as to how she came to this point in life, prepared now to assume a significant teaching ministry wherever the Lord opens the door. I am so very proud of her, having seen her persevere through many trials to get to the doctoral finish lines. I\u2019m also pleased to give you advance notice that we are writing a book with one other person on Women in the NT for InterVarsity Press. Stay tuned for the next chapter\u2026.
\n\u2014\u2013
\nDropping Nets
\nMark states in an infuriatingly matter of fact way that, Simon and Andrew drop their nets and
\nfollow Jesus (Mark 1:18). Likewise, James and John leave their father sitting in the boat, get up,
\nand go after him (Mark 1:20). No elaboration, no fanfare\u2014they simply get up, leave everything
\nbehind, and go. Really? Just turn your back on your livelihood, your sense of identity and
\nbelonging and go? What about family? What will people think? Surely, Jesus doesn\u2019t expect this
\nof us? Of me? Right?<\/p>\n
A little over a decade ago, I sensed God calling me to seminary. At that time, I was heavily
\ninvolved in evangelistic outreach at both the local and regional levels. This ministry was bearing
\nfruit and I was experiencing a deep sense of joy and satisfaction in the work I was doing. This
\nwas remarkable for a woman who had spent a good portion of her adult life alternating between
\ncycles of binge drinking and bouts of frantic activity aimed at gratifying an insatiable need to
\nsucceed. Spent from these addictions to work and alcohol, I had spiraled into depression. Unable
\nto think of one reason to go on living, I cried out in despair to the God I had turned my back to,
\nmany years ago. He met me in that dark pit, freed me from my addictions, lifted me up out of
\nthere, set my feet on a firm rock, and put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to the Lord.
\nFrom that moment on, I had a new lease on life and, for the first time, I had peace. I had a reason
\nto live. My newly found purpose was to love him with all that was in me and to serve him in
\nwhatever way he should choose. And it was enough.<\/p>\n
I knew that going to seminary meant that I would have to drop this net, this ministry, the very
\nthing that gave me such joy. It meant becoming a student again, this time, as an adult. What
\nwould that be like? But that wasn\u2019t all. Going to seminary meant leaving behind the big house in
\nthe suburbs and most of the \u201cstuff\u201d that my husband and I had accumulated during the course of
\nour marriage. It meant taking our two young children to an unknown place very different from
\nthe affluent, urbane neighborhood where we had originally planned to raise them. Going to
\nseminary meant that my husband would have to tell his boss that he was leaving his job to move
\nto Kentucky, so his wife could go to school. In sum, going to seminary meant that we would look
\nlike fools, if not something worse, to many, if not most, people.<\/p>\n
Up until that point, my family and friends had had no real issues with what they perceived as my
\nreturn to church\/religion. My conversion had resulted in startling changes in both my attitude and
\nbehavior, all for the positive. This transformation was so remarkable and thoroughgoing that it
\nled my cynical husband to accept Christ. As a consequence, our marriage, which had been slowly
\ncaving in under the pressures of the self-centered, worldly lifestyle that each of us had embraced,
\nwas redeemed, renewed, and transformed. Everyone noticed. And although the explanations
\ngiven for these changes varied (despite our consistent testimony to the power of the gospel),
\neveryone welcomed them.<\/p>\n
As for the ministry I was involved in, as long as I didn\u2019t talk about it, kept the house and kids in
\norder, and made sure that it didn\u2019t interfere with my husband\u2019s career goals and aspirations, it
\nwas tolerated. True, my parents and in-laws found it strange and disturbing that I was spending
\nso much time doing \u201cchurch work.\u201d To be sure, my sister-in-law and close friend fretted over my
\nand my husband\u2019s spiritual well-being for the simple fact that it was I, and not my husband, who
\nwas leading several ministry teams and doing things, they thought, were best reserved for men.
\nAnd, to be certain, my non-Christian friends and family members thought that what I was doing
\nwas a complete waste of time and talent. But as long as I kept it to myself, they were, by and
\nlarge, content with the \u201cnew\u201d Sue. My ministry was the elephant in the room, but it was an
\nelephant they all managed to tiptoe around.<\/p>\n
The real trouble started in chapter two of my story. The announcement that we were selling the
\nhouse and moving to Kentucky to attend seminary violated an unwritten and unspoken code that
\ndefined what was \u201cnormal\u201d for a suburban wife and mother of two. My in-laws accused me of
\nsabotaging my husband\u2019s career for a selfish whim. My father actually pulled my husband aside
\nand suggested that he get psychiatric help for me. My mother could not understand how I could
\ndo such a self-serving, stupid thing. My agnostic brother stopped speaking to me. My sister-inlaw
\nand closest, Christian friend told me that I was disobeying God by going to seminary and by
\nasking my husband to give up his job and home. Seminary training was for men and my job was
\nto stay at home and care for my husband and children. The last words my closest, non-Christian
\nfriend ever spoke to me were, \u201cI don\u2019t know what to do with this.\u201d Wounded, and gasping in
\npain, I wondered whether this news would have caused such a visceral reaction if my husband
\nwas the one going to seminary, or if we were moving because either he or I had received a job
\ntransfer. I thought not.<\/p>\n
Dropping my net was costing me a lot more than a fruitful ministry. It was costing me
\neverything. Yet, I took the hand of the God I loved and, entrusting him with the life he had given
\nback to me, I went forward. I wish I could say that everything turned out as I would have liked.
\nThe truth of the matter is that my in-laws are still hoping that we\u2019ll get off of this religion kick
\nand move back home. My brother has yet to speak to me. My sister-in-law continues to believe
\nthat I\u2019m living in sin and that my husband isn\u2019t \u201csaved,\u201d because he refuses to exercise proper
\nauthority over his family. Just recently, I successfully defended my doctoral dissertation and my
\nparents refused to acknowledge the accomplishment.<\/p>\n
Yet, I wouldn\u2019t change a thing. Although chapter three of my story, \u201cThe Seminary Years,\u201d has
\nhad its share of trouble and rough patches, God\u2019s grace has been more than sufficient to see us
\nthrough them all. During these past twelve years, as I moved through my master level studies and
\non to complete my doctorate in Biblical Studies, the Lord has provided us with everything we\u2019ve
\nneeded to complete the task he called us to. Point in case, when my husband resigned from his
\nposition, back in Chicago, with no job prospects in sight in Kentucky, his boss asked him to stay
\non with the company as a remote employee. Twelve years later, he\u2019s still working for that same
\ncompany from our home near the seminary campus. Similarly, the extraordinary people God has
\nplaced in our lives\u2014friends, colleagues, and professors\u2014have more than made-up for the lack of
\nsupport and encouragement from our families.
\n\u2000
\nMost importantly, I have come to know Christ in a way that is only possible in the midst of pain
\nand loss, which, I have come to realize, is the cost of true discipleship. Stripped of all self-sufficiency and all dependency on anything (including, a satisfying ministry or career\/job) or
\nanyone (including, family) other than God, we encounter the wildly beautiful, untamable Jesus
\nwhose compelling persona was, and continues to be, enough to cause sensible, sober-minded,
\ndown-to-earth fishermen (and this wife\/mother\/Ph.D.) to leave everything behind and follow
\nhim.<\/p>\n
This Jesus is no respecter of the artificial categories of discipleship that we construct and that we
\noften envision as existing in shades of pink and blue. He calls whomever he pleases to whatever
\ntask he chooses. The God we serve cannot be stuffed into a box, no matter how hard we try and
\nno matter how much we try to convince ourselves that we have succeeded. I believe, that
\nchapters two and three of my story have had such a disturbing effect on my family and friends
\nfor the simple reason that they challenge every conception of God, and what he demands of those
\nwho call themselves his, that is represented there. As for my non-Christian friend and family
\nmembers, the fact that a sensible, well-educated woman, with a law degree to boot, would leave
\neverything behind to do something that, in their eyes, is so impractical and so irrational raises the
\nalarming possibility that there is more to this Jesus than they are willing to admit. In both cases,
\nthe Jesus that confronts them demands a response.<\/p>\n
As for myself, I know what my response will be. As I stand at the start of chapter four of my
\nstory, uncertain of both where I will be or exactly what I will be doing after graduation this May,
\nnot knowing what nets I\u2019ll be asked to drop, I\u2019m going forward, following my Jesus, and not
\nlooking back.
\n\u2000<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dr. Sue Liubinskas, who recently successfully defended her doctoral thesis on Paul and ethnography here at Asbury has graciously agreed to share her testimony as to how she came to this point in life, prepared now to assume a significant teaching ministry wherever the Lord opens the door. I am so very proud of her, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n