Simmering
I'm not one for over-analyzing everyday happenings.
Ok, that's a total lie.
But I've gotten pretty good at letting things simmer for a while before extracting the meaning from them. Most of the time life is more like a crockpot than a microwave, and contrary to my Gen Y instant-gratification tendencies, there are certain things I put in the back seat until time gives me the perspective to resolve them.
Church is one thing I am parking right now. That car is parked. I'll figure out my ecclesiology someday, but that day is not Friday, June 20, 2014.
Stem cell research is also parked.
I could go on.
But there are some things that are in high gear right now for me, I'm telling you - try being a 22 year old woman in Div school studying social ethics and you'll see what I mean. The Bible, women's roles, healthcare access, immigration, incarceration, and all the bioethics you can imagine are moving along in my brain. Full steam ahead. Things are a'changing for me. Bioethics is moving, and that's exciting because I'm feeling some direction and a sense of what voice I can have in the conversation. And it's good, but tough.
I'm no expert on higher education. I know a few people who are, and they've told me I'm supposed to know what everyone else thinks before I know what I think, which is very much the paradigm my academic life is following. As long as I really immerse in something, park it for a few years, and then put it in drive, everything starts to click and I feel my own formation happening. I easily find myself wanting it to happen faster. To skip steps and already know myself vocationally, academically, ethically. But rushing it just ruins it. You can't cook a good meal in a microwave.
I'm in school to be an ethicist. A Christian bioethicist. And I am years/decades away from knowing exactly what that means for me. This summer, a year into my MDiv, I've just been slowing down and looking around. I'm noticing what is parked and what is moving. And I want to encourage you to do the same, and be patient with your process, whatever it is. Maybe you don't know yourself enough yet to choose a career, and if (for example) that means leaving home to be a wildlife photographer in the Grand Canyon for a while, you should do that. You can park the important things. Even seminarians have to park church and stem cell research.
So keep trudging along in the areas you can, and let God work in the simmering of the rest. I think he does his best work over the long-haul.
Ok, that's a total lie.
But I've gotten pretty good at letting things simmer for a while before extracting the meaning from them. Most of the time life is more like a crockpot than a microwave, and contrary to my Gen Y instant-gratification tendencies, there are certain things I put in the back seat until time gives me the perspective to resolve them.
Church is one thing I am parking right now. That car is parked. I'll figure out my ecclesiology someday, but that day is not Friday, June 20, 2014.
Stem cell research is also parked.
I could go on.
But there are some things that are in high gear right now for me, I'm telling you - try being a 22 year old woman in Div school studying social ethics and you'll see what I mean. The Bible, women's roles, healthcare access, immigration, incarceration, and all the bioethics you can imagine are moving along in my brain. Full steam ahead. Things are a'changing for me. Bioethics is moving, and that's exciting because I'm feeling some direction and a sense of what voice I can have in the conversation. And it's good, but tough.
I'm no expert on higher education. I know a few people who are, and they've told me I'm supposed to know what everyone else thinks before I know what I think, which is very much the paradigm my academic life is following. As long as I really immerse in something, park it for a few years, and then put it in drive, everything starts to click and I feel my own formation happening. I easily find myself wanting it to happen faster. To skip steps and already know myself vocationally, academically, ethically. But rushing it just ruins it. You can't cook a good meal in a microwave.
I'm in school to be an ethicist. A Christian bioethicist. And I am years/decades away from knowing exactly what that means for me. This summer, a year into my MDiv, I've just been slowing down and looking around. I'm noticing what is parked and what is moving. And I want to encourage you to do the same, and be patient with your process, whatever it is. Maybe you don't know yourself enough yet to choose a career, and if (for example) that means leaving home to be a wildlife photographer in the Grand Canyon for a while, you should do that. You can park the important things. Even seminarians have to park church and stem cell research.
So keep trudging along in the areas you can, and let God work in the simmering of the rest. I think he does his best work over the long-haul.
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