Saturday, April 12, 2008

One Month

I graduate a month from today.

Except for a semester I took off in undergrad, I have been a student since I was five. But even during that semester I knew I was going back to school.

Last spring semester I was still a student, but was interning in Chicago. It was almost like not being a student, but I knew I was going back to school.

I've had many years of summer breaks, spring breaks, Christmas breaks, and fall breaks. But during those breaks I knew I was going back to school.

I think I know what job God has lead me to, but I don't want to announce it until I know for sure. I think it is finally starting to sink in, this leaving school thing. I mean, maybe I'll go back part-time one day, but my full-time, always having gone to school days are about to be over.

I returned from Chicago on May 1, 2007. I remember thinking and praying about the next year, which would include my last year of divinity school. In a few weeks that year will be up. Then a couple weeks later I'll graduate and very soon after that I will move.

I am used to going places, serving for a couple months and coming back. But not this time. This time when I am done serving where God has lead me, he will lead me to another place to serve. There has been a lot of opportunities to serve here at Campbell, not all of which I've fully taken advantage of, but there is a longing God has placed in me to serve in other places too.

As I have mentioned before, very close to 1/3 of my life has been spent at Campbell. It is going to be a change.

I am ready.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." ~Jeremiah 29:11

However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. ~1 Corinthians 2:9-10

Friday, April 11, 2008

Keep Those Presses Rolling

I used to want to be a journalist, but I thought the hours were too unpredictable. I used to want to be a news anchor working in New York City, but that ceased to be my dream. Funny that I am going into the ministry- very unpredictable, and funny that I began to see my calling to urban ministry while I was in New York City.

Though I am not going to be a regular front page contributor to The Washington Times (ironic that I am mainly referring to print and I am including an internet link), there's something about journalism that will probably always fascinate me. When I watch movies that take place before television became mainstream, I am jealous that newspaper reporters were the ones to break the big stories. Rather now, newspapers have had to form a new identity: the source of in-depth coverage that television news can't provide. Yet, now even the internet is competing with that.

To explain my fascination with the media, consider what I did within minutes of Kansas' victory in the NCAA final game: I hopped on the internet to see how fast different news websites would publish headlines.

I was on The Campbell Times staff in undergrad and for the most part, I loved it. And let me say, with all the complaints against the campus paper, give those students a break! Yes, there are some errors, but they are still learning. I don't think you'd find a law student who could argue a case flawlessly or a pre-pharmacy student who could accurately detect every dangerous medication combination.

With newspaper readership on the decline, I find it comforting to see the Newseum re-open in Washington, DC. When I was in high school I made a few visits to the museum when it was in Arlington, VA. Very few museums offer such a range of interactive activities and I hope this museum will help more people understand the complexity of news coverage.

So next time you see a newspaper, take a glance at a headline. I'm not even asking you to read the article, just take half a second to appreciate the contribution journalists have made to communication.

Monday, April 7, 2008

I Saw My Mother

It was in the bathroom of a church in Wilmington. I looked in the mirror. I saw my mother.

Well, of course, I am her daughter. It's natural that I would look like her. And yet, I used to wonder how I fit into the family.

David looks just like dad. I'm told I look just like David, but I think its just the red hair. If I did look just like David I would look just like dad, and I don't.

Some people say I look just like my mom, some people say I don't look like my mom. Our senior portraits from high school are very different and I thought I didn't look like my mom.

The rest of my family was very athletic. They all played catcher in baseball or softball sometime during their life. I was the kid who was just good enough not to strike out at kickball, but nobody's first pick for the team unless my best friend was captain.

Sophomore year I had the opportunity to fill in for an intramural game. I played catcher. True, most of the balls rolled past me and were picked up by the umpire, but I played catcher. I was excited.

My mom and grandma often call me by my aunt's name and it appears I picked up a lot from her. It appears I picked stuff up from my uncle on my dad's side. It doesn't appear I picked up as much from my own parents.

Sometimes I just feel like someone in my family. It might be a way I move my hands or how I feel when I'm speaking, but I will think how it is something David or mom would do. I feel how I think another family member sometimes looks. If that makes no sense, you're probably normal.

Yes, when I looked in the mirror that March day in Wilmington and saw my mother's face, I was happy.

Turns out I might not be adopted after all.