What I got for $50,000.
"I’ve been out of seminary for two weeks and I already feel closer to God." I half-jokingly said this to a friend the other day; however, there is an element of truth to my statement.
Now I spend my time praying, meditating, and breathing God. I try not to "think" about God too much.
For a $50,000 investment I walked away with the conviction that different people have different ideas about God and most of our understanding of God is from the dominant culture in which we were raised or find ourselves. Change the dominant culture in which you hang out and watch your understanding of God expand and take a renewed shape. If you were raised Mormon there is a good chance your understanding of God is through the eyes of a Mormon. The same can be said for Muslims, Baptists, Hindus, or Roman Catholics. Those in which we surround ourselves most often shape our views of God. There is great danger in surrounding ourselves by only those who think like us. It tends to lead us into arrogance and often our justification of attempting to dominate others with our correct doctrine.
The second thing I took away for my $50,000 is that we are all experiencing some form of soul pain. We are all addicted to whatever we think will alleviate the pain. We just want to feel better. We all need God, whether we know it or not. Ultimately, there is a God and I am not it, neither are you. We all need each other to be a safe place where we can talk about our pain, hopes, dreams, ideas, likes, dislikes, fears, and joys without being crucified intellectually, physically, or emotionally for what is going on in our souls.
Thirdly, for $50,000 I come to recognize that we all have an experience of God and it is our experience of the Divine that is real. Trust your expereince with God. While many of us in seminary spend a great amount of time thinking together about God, many of us rarely spending any time praying together to God. We can think about our concepts of God all day but it does little good if we cannot sit at the table with others and share our experience, strength, and hope we find in God.
Finally, I didn’t need to spend $50,000 to learn these things; I already knew them. Which makes the $50,000 education well worth the investment.
9 Comments:
Your posting should be distributed to every person who is a candidate for ordained ministry. What an incredible insight into theological education.
The problem is, most people who are not part of a 12-step organization don't often get the stuff that you came into seminary with - so they come out more knowledgeable, but generally more egotistical and toxic, than how they came in. My brief experience has been that seminary rarely builds humility, candor and compassion by itself...
Praise God that you could be able to stand...your church will definitely get far more than $50K worth, whether they pay for it or not!
(And by the way, Happy Founders Day...)
I feel like I should mail you a check....thanks for sharing!
"there is a God and I am not it, neither are you". It?
I agree with Steve, in fact as I was reading I was thinking of emailing this to a friend who is about to attend seminary in Denver.
Please don't stop writing on your blog, you have excellent insight and a great communication style.
Thanks for your comments.
Steve, you are too kind!
DJG, I'll email you my address. :)
Kat, thank you. YOu are kind.
Bumble, Thanks, I really wasn't attempting to make a theological statement. "IT" is a figure of speech. Some folks say HE some say SHE. It depends on the dominant culture in which you live and understand GOd. That was one of my points. It was worth the $50,000 to confirm this for me. I feel like I am closer to GOd whose ways are not my ways.
David, we could all stand a little recovery, couldn't we? What do they say, its free but if you don't like it we'll be happy to refund your misery.
Hey Well Woman, thanks! I was posting while you were commnenting. I appreciate your kind and encouraging words.
It's a very direct and beautiful post. C.S. Lewis use to say that we must fall back from all our arguments about Christ into the arms of Christ Himself.
Rick, great post! We should all be so blessed to owe $50,000 if it would take us to thoughts and convictions as you are sharing with us!
Keep bloggin, bro!
DU
What a fascinating summary of one's theological education. Thanks for saving us the 50K!
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