Done.

And another semester comes to an end.  This has probably been one of the easier semesters for me academically, and yet i feel it has probably been the semester where I have learned the most and where I have really found what I like to study and gotten some direction into some sort of career for myself later in life.

So I have come to the decision that I like studying the bible.  I have experienced just every kind of class the Christian Studies department can throw at me, and I have to say that the one’s based on the bible, where the bible is the only textbook, are definitely my favorites.  I have found that I really do genuinely enjoy getting up at 8 in the morning and listening to these two men who I respect so much teach me what they have discovered about scripture and let them encourage me to dive in and find the same.  Even in learning Hebrew, I just really enjoy scripture and all it has to offer.  I like theology and everything else like that, but I like studying what all other disciplines in the field of Christian Studies fall back to, scripture.  I am actually really sad that I don’t get to take anymore classes of New Testament in my undergrad, and that I only have one more Old Testament and no more Hebrew.  Those things really have expanded my knowledge so much more than I have experienced in any other subject I have ever studied.

In light of this recent discovery, I have decided and am in the process of deciding several other things.  The first thing is that, because of my new found desire to really study the bible, I am all the more excited about Seminary.  I have decided that in seminary, I am going to focus on the disciplines of biblical studies, hopefully in the original Hebrew and Greek, and I am almost guaranteed to be able to take a lot of those classes if that is what I really want.  Because of this desire, I have narrowed down my choices to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary or Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.  At NOBTS I can get an MDiv with a concentration in biblical languages, and at SWBTS I can get an MDIV where all my NT and OT classes are in Greek and Hebrew.

The other thing I have decided is that I think in addition to doing youth ministry, I want to go for my Ph.D and become a professor, and teach somewhere.  It makes sense for the level of education I want to obtain, and it is a good second ministry to have that when I can no longer do youth ministry, I can solely focus on that.

Let me know what you think.

At Least I’m Moving Forward

I’m getting older, it’s becoming more clear everyday. I’m not going to rant about how I’m so old now and the young whippersnappers today don’t understand what life is all about, I will save all that for when I am senile. But I realized that adulthood isn’t something I am preparing for, it’s something I am living in now.

On Thursday night I hung out with a friend who I have not talked to all semester. It was nice to catch up and hear about her life and what was going on. Through the course of our conversation, I started to realize that a lot of what we were talking about was how people change, and not in a negative way, but we did talk a lot about how the people we know have grown up, and how it is interesting to sit in Starbucks about to start our sixth semester in college and look back at where we and our friends were when we were freshman. A lot has changed: people got jobs, got engaged or married, broke up, changed their major, moved away, no one stayed stagnant.

Now I am definitely not saying that I hate change, anyone who really knows me knows that I like change, partially cause I am pretty sure I am A.D.D. and partially because new things are interesting to me. When people change though (for good or for bad) it is totally different than moving to a new city or getting a new job. When people change you have to adjust the relationship, it can’t be the same as it was when you first met. I think sometimes people think that they aren’t changing and that no one else should to, or that when others do change it is for the worse, but I don’t agree with that. Change is natural, people are growing, lives are evolving, relationships change.

I guess looking back on the last 5 semesters I don’t know how much I have really changed, I would assume it would be a lot. But I don’t apologize for changing, and it doesn’t bother me that others are either. I am going to move on with my life, you can come with me or you can stay behind, but know that I am not going to be the same person I was yesterday, I can’t be, not if I am going to follow after what God has for my life. I am trying to take steps, the first of millions, to deliberately move toward where God wants me to be.  I am going to do what I have always done and accept the change in my life and in the lives of my friends, not try and fight it. I actually think it will be pretty cool to come back to UMHB in 20 years and talk with the people I graduated with, I am excited to see the change that will occur in that time, heck, I am excited to see the change that is going to happen between today and May 2009 when we leave this place.

I rather enjoy the idea of change, it’s exciting, sometimes scary, but overall it’s for the best, and I can’t wait for what tomorrow brings.