if this waiting lasts forever

I have a friend that for the purpose of this blog we’ll call Arkansas.  He’d understand why.  Anyway, he’s in youth ministry and there was a time in which we were in youth ministry together.  Then I went off to Seminary and he got his first full time gig as a youth pastor.  He’s starting seminary this fall and wrote this blog about why he is going to seminary.  As I read it, it resonated a lot with me.
It doesn’t surprise me that Arkansas and I have similar reasons for being in this thing called Seminary, or that we both struggle with the question of what we come out the other side with – a Masters, a better knowledge of all things biblical, a job (hopefully).  It also doesn’t surprise me that Arkansas found a way to articulate these things more eloquently before even taking his first class than I can even after two years.  He’s always had a way with words.
This morning I sat across te table from a woman in our congregation and got to hear all about her life.  We sat there and got to know each other over breakfast and unlimited refills.  It was a slow and easy conversation about the places God has entered and guided our lives.  After I left breakfast, I drove over to the church and caught up on some emails, chatted with my coworkers and helped to set up a worship station for service on Sunday.  As I drove away from church I thought to myself, this is what my life will look like from now on.
Ministry is a fickle creation.  It’s got it’s ups and downs like any other job.  I’m not trying to paint a romantic picture of it, it has it’s struggles.  And sometimes those struggles hurt more deeply than we could imagine.
But then there’s those moments when it’s all worth it.  When you get to sit across from someone and hear how God is working in their life.  You get to enter into life with people and dwell in the grace of God alongside of them.  It’s magical.
I was asked this morning if I had always planned on going to Seminary.  I did my usual laugh and “Oh, no.  I never planned on Seminary, in fact I planned on NOT going to Seminary.” Which made me realize, that without Seminary I would not be sitting across from this woman in this particular breakfast place.  I wouldn’t be the person who was sitting across from her.
I’m not saying that the girl that worked alongside Arkansas wasn’t good at ministry.  Or that the woman graduating from Seminary will be completely ready for anything ministry will throw towards her.  All I know is that this road of Seminary was a much needed detour in my life.  One that has and will continue to add color to the tapestry that God is creating from my life.