"To everything there is a season, a time to every purpose under heaven"Ecclesiastes 3:1
It's likely you've heard the song "Turn, Turn, Turn" by The Byrds recorded in the 1960s if you are not directly familiar with the Bible verse itself. For me, its a verse that reminds me of the time I lived and worked in North Carolina at St. James UMC. Eight years ago tomorrow, I began my position as Minister of Adult Discipleship there. I am incredibly thankful to God for that 3 year season of my life and I am grateful for the chance to go back occasionally and visit those special people that touched my life and opened my heart and mind to new and creative possibilities in my life and ministry. However, it wasn't a 'fun' season of my life. I was homesick in ways that I never experienced in Kentucky during the previous four years while I was at seminary. I often wondered what God was doing to have me live there and experience the culture of Down East Carolina all by myself. I did sense it was a 'season' though. Ecclesiastes 3:1 was ever present when I packed my boxes and life and moved into a little townhome. Longtime friends, Nancy and Larry gave me this little wall hanging as a present and I kept it up year round in my kitchen of the little townhome I occupied while I lived there.
Since moving away, I keep the wall hanging with my autumn decorations and I've been reflecting on its significance and all it represents to me since I pulled it out of its box this weekend. There's often much I leave unsaid in my daily posts. That's one reason they are daily posts I suppose! I knew I was an easy candidate to become a 'lapsed blogger' so I resolved to keep it short and simple and use a photograph to help tell the story. The blog has become something I didn't expect and I am not sorry I began it last February. Reflective blog entries like this one are few and far between and mostly when I write about friends, family and special events or meaningful mementos like this one - and even though you might not believe it - there is a great deal of 'backstory' I edit out.
The blog helps me in my writing and that is a good thing since I am pretty much launching the beginnings of writing the proposal for my doctoral dissertation. The nascent ideas have been birthed and the research and readings have nurtured my thoughts, prayers and energies into forming a thesis statement that my adviser approved and encouraged me to pursue last week on my campus visit to Virginia. I am grateful to my family members who unwaveringly support this crazy lifestyle of a mid-life grad student and the friends who unquestionably offer me the use of their homes for overnight stays or for study space or unselfishly give me time to chat and talk when we catch up by phone as I drive hundreds of miles for meetings. I am awed by a congregation that has helped support me in my educational endeavors just because I am a candidate for ordained ministry who comes out of the Greenville District in Eastern North Carolina! Believe me, I wish this season of perpetual waiting for graduation and ordination were over. But I really don't know to what 'great thing' or ministry opportunities lie beyond these goals that God is yet preparing me for. I just know the task before me is writing this dissertation, in which education for discipleship is the key component (notice any themes connected to my larger life here? It's a shame I have to have credible viable published research here or I could write the dissertation before the month is out!).
I am looking forward to the time beyond, with a vocation that allows me to live in my own place. I wonder if I will hang this banner next year here at The Homestead or somewhere else and realize I can't even guess. What I do know, is that for this season of my life, it is fabulous that Mom and Dad are willing to share a space for me here at The Homestead. I am glad to get hugs and overnights with my niece and nephew and spend time with my brother and sister-in-law just hanging out occasionally and not just at family events and or at the holidays. It is a good season of my life and I am glad it does offer me a little fun on the side as well.
Since moving away, I keep the wall hanging with my autumn decorations and I've been reflecting on its significance and all it represents to me since I pulled it out of its box this weekend. There's often much I leave unsaid in my daily posts. That's one reason they are daily posts I suppose! I knew I was an easy candidate to become a 'lapsed blogger' so I resolved to keep it short and simple and use a photograph to help tell the story. The blog has become something I didn't expect and I am not sorry I began it last February. Reflective blog entries like this one are few and far between and mostly when I write about friends, family and special events or meaningful mementos like this one - and even though you might not believe it - there is a great deal of 'backstory' I edit out.
The blog helps me in my writing and that is a good thing since I am pretty much launching the beginnings of writing the proposal for my doctoral dissertation. The nascent ideas have been birthed and the research and readings have nurtured my thoughts, prayers and energies into forming a thesis statement that my adviser approved and encouraged me to pursue last week on my campus visit to Virginia. I am grateful to my family members who unwaveringly support this crazy lifestyle of a mid-life grad student and the friends who unquestionably offer me the use of their homes for overnight stays or for study space or unselfishly give me time to chat and talk when we catch up by phone as I drive hundreds of miles for meetings. I am awed by a congregation that has helped support me in my educational endeavors just because I am a candidate for ordained ministry who comes out of the Greenville District in Eastern North Carolina! Believe me, I wish this season of perpetual waiting for graduation and ordination were over. But I really don't know to what 'great thing' or ministry opportunities lie beyond these goals that God is yet preparing me for. I just know the task before me is writing this dissertation, in which education for discipleship is the key component (notice any themes connected to my larger life here? It's a shame I have to have credible viable published research here or I could write the dissertation before the month is out!).
I am looking forward to the time beyond, with a vocation that allows me to live in my own place. I wonder if I will hang this banner next year here at The Homestead or somewhere else and realize I can't even guess. What I do know, is that for this season of my life, it is fabulous that Mom and Dad are willing to share a space for me here at The Homestead. I am glad to get hugs and overnights with my niece and nephew and spend time with my brother and sister-in-law just hanging out occasionally and not just at family events and or at the holidays. It is a good season of my life and I am glad it does offer me a little fun on the side as well.
3 comments:
It was a joyous thing to read that the thesis statement was approved! Blessings on your continued work. And it was wonderful to see you on campus last week.
We are all so blessed to have you in our lives and watch you continually accomplish great things. I'm touched you still have this wall hanging. <3
i'm so glad we're in 'this' together. it's nice to know i'm not alone on this phd path, with no knowing where it will lead... but enjoying the journey. =)
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