Everyday Black Matters
First off, I need your input. On Friday, Eugene Peterson -of The Message– fame is coming to my school to speak in chapel & since classes are canceled that day I was hoping to save myself the $50 in gas & get some extra studying done. After chapel is a really nice lunch & then some really cool theater team. Should I go? Having now studied Greek for a mere 4 weeks I have a new & profound respect for Eugene Peterson in that he translated all of the Old & New Testaments, so much so that I could fall at his feet and say “how did you possibly do it?” Greek is not coming easy to me at all. I need a tutor. blah. Go or not go?
Another reason I was hoping to make Fri. a study day is because I am being sucked back into the InterVarsity fold and being forced to attend some regional leadership meetings for the next two days. It’s really inconvenient in terms of child-care, missing classes, study time, sleep, etc. but on the other hand I am finding myself really missing IV staff people & so I am excited to get to go to work for 2 days. Which reminded me of today…
I talked to Shaylen today (only the best new IV staff intern in the country) and she had recently redecorated the IV staff office at Western’s campus which was previously maintained by 2 men, Jason T. & Jim M. who don’t well, lets just say, making the office ‘pretty’ wasn’t their highest priority. (sorry to put y’all on blast mode, but y’all know I love you). Anyway, I stopped by to see it, newly painted rearranged in all of it’s splendor and there on campus was a big crowd of students listening to a sandwich board preacher telling everyone they were going to hell. 1st of off, I was on campus & I felt happy, like an addict who’d forgotten they really enjoyed an occasional shoot-up. 2nd, I just wanted to dig in & go to work fending off the weird sandwich board preachers. 3rd, I thought, man, I love college students. love it. love it. love it. Sabbatical is fun, but I will be happy to get back on campus. A secular campus, where people hate Jesus & don’t mind telling me about it.
Being at Western Theological Seminary is indeed a weird experience because for the most part everyone loves Jesus and follows God closely. And it creates this alternate reality that is just not lived out in the real world. On the one hand I love it and on the other hand, I really do miss my ministry and I miss being out and about with my students whose lives are all jacked up on all sorts of levels. One thing I love, love, love about WTS is chapel. They have the most beautiful, worshipful chapel services & when I sit in there I just feel like God is right there next to me. This in contrast to when I was in high school and we were forced to go to chapel and forced to pretend like we were good Christians and taught by teachers who could barely get it together and of which most were openly racist. It was horrible. But WTS redeems all that chapel garbage.
Well, I gotta pack… and take an online quiz…. off to an InterVarsity excursion & I’m excited. 🙂
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