A Word to Seminarians (and to myself, primarily)
I haven't written in almost 4 months, surely the most silent I've ever been since starting this blog. Perhaps it is headed for a natural death. We'll see. Frankly, I've just been too busy to write non-academic things.
But today's post is neccessitated by the very thing that has been keeping me busy. Seminary. "Theological Disneyland", Matt Smethurst calls it.
The greatest challenge facing seminarians, it not the illusive A, but spiritual shipwrek.
David Mathias quotes Don Carson at length about "Ernest Christian":
After Ernest has been six months in seminary, the picture is very different. Ernest is spending many hours a day memorizing Greek morphology and learning the details of the itinerary of Paul’s second missionary journey. Ernest has also begun to write exegetical papers; but by the time he has finished his lexical study, his syntactical diagram, his survey of critical opinions, and his evaluation of conflicting evidence, somehow the Bible does not feel as alive to him as it once did. Ernest is troubled by this; he finds it more difficult to pray and witness then he did before he came to seminary.
Frankly, the description of Ernest hits a little closer to home than I am comfortable with. And sadly, I know that I am not alone in that.
Seminary is dangerous.
What to do?
1) I need to keep my focus soli deo gloria.
2) Remember that there are things more important than semimary, prioritise my King, my soul, my family and my church.
3) Rest. I have now decided that I will sleep by 12 midnight, regardless of the unfinished work, and also that I will allow myself that 24 hour Sabbath-rest.
[HT: BL for the articles]
But today's post is neccessitated by the very thing that has been keeping me busy. Seminary. "Theological Disneyland", Matt Smethurst calls it.
The greatest challenge facing seminarians, it not the illusive A, but spiritual shipwrek.
David Mathias quotes Don Carson at length about "Ernest Christian":
After Ernest has been six months in seminary, the picture is very different. Ernest is spending many hours a day memorizing Greek morphology and learning the details of the itinerary of Paul’s second missionary journey. Ernest has also begun to write exegetical papers; but by the time he has finished his lexical study, his syntactical diagram, his survey of critical opinions, and his evaluation of conflicting evidence, somehow the Bible does not feel as alive to him as it once did. Ernest is troubled by this; he finds it more difficult to pray and witness then he did before he came to seminary.
Frankly, the description of Ernest hits a little closer to home than I am comfortable with. And sadly, I know that I am not alone in that.
Seminary is dangerous.
What to do?
1) I need to keep my focus soli deo gloria.
2) Remember that there are things more important than semimary, prioritise my King, my soul, my family and my church.
3) Rest. I have now decided that I will sleep by 12 midnight, regardless of the unfinished work, and also that I will allow myself that 24 hour Sabbath-rest.
[HT: BL for the articles]