A Cup of Contentment

As I continue my summer vacation, or more precisely, as I begin to relax into the atmosphere of an unhurried relaxation period, I find myself re-entering contemplation.  I was never very far from it, but there are times in the school year when contemplation must be placed to the side and a paper must be written despite not coming to a satisfactory conclusion.  The more schooling I receive, the more I am aware that I have an insatiable appetite for learning.  There is always more room to grow, and always deeper to dig.  Perhaps no paper is truly ever finished.  Time constraints and word counts place limitations on our expression, but each new class stimulates my mind and heart in ways that intimacy and passion arouse the body.  What a precious gift it is to be able to attend seminary!

Some people will ask me when I will be done.  I've even caught myself wondering this from time to time.  But graduation is not the goal.  Ordination is not even the end.  No.  Even those things are just marking places of new beginning.


Last Saturday, I celebrated as I watched my fellow students process down the aisle in their caps and gowns.  I know that this day has been very long in coming for most of the students at Fuller NW.  We attend a commuter-oriented extension campus of Fuller Theological Seminary, and most of us work part time or more.  Some work multiple jobs and slowly chip away at their theological education requirements in order to pursue a calling they have received from the Lord.  By the time graduation comes around, most are exhausted from the simple living of life while in seminary. 

None of us live in a vacuum.  We encounter the brutality of every day life: births, deaths, marriages, divorces, cancer, strokes and the moving of family and friends.  Many of us are involved in ministry to one degree or another: leading worship, conducting services, serving in chaplaincy roles, building up campus ministries and planting churches.  It is an intense period of our lives.

Still, in the midst of it all, we have the joy of discovering truths that have been written down through the centuries of Christian development.  We lean in as our professors weave their own tapestries of faith and encourage us to continue creating our own.  Our hearts open up like flowers in the morning sun, and the fluttering of a butterfly is felt within our spirits.

In these times when we breathe deeply and allow what we have been studying to sink deep into our bones, we are extremely blessed.  Here, in the beginning of the summer vacation, I can be found sitting on my couch, looking out the window, nearly every day with my afternoon cup of coffee or tea.  These times when the average person would might scold me for doing nothing, I am remembering how to simply be.  Everything that I have been studying in the last nine plus months is making connections and finding places to take root.

Growing fruit for the Kingdom is not something that can be rushed.  There is much waiting involved.  During these summer days, I pour myself a cup of contentment and rest myself in our Beloved's arms.

Photo by Trista L. Wynne

Beloved,

Thank You for these times of rest.  Thank You for this season of being.  Thank You for working in me to bring fruit for Your Kingdom.  May those who read this message be drawn towards Your arms of love, in Jesus' name, through Your Holy Spirit, amen.