first day

What goes through your mind on the first day of something new? Will I fit in, will it be what I want, how will I do compared to so many other people? All questions one may ask on the first day of a new job, the first day of school, the first day of anything new can be filled with anxiety or it can be filled with joy. Today I embark on the first day of taking seminary courses. I also have a choice what will I do. For me I have gone to the story of Jesus in the scriptures of when he and the disciples are out on the sea and a storm is coming up and the waves are intense, the seasoned fishermen cannot handle it and Jesus is sleeping! filled with anxiety, no! sleeping when others can not walk on deck because of waves he is sleeping, how can he sleep in that? He is choosing to, just like us each day we have a choice in how we handle circumstances that come our way. We can not choose the circumstances but we can choose the attitude toward the circumstances. How about you what will you choose today?

smell of humilty

There it was, the smell, the fragrance, the aroma of humility. What does humility smell like? How can you tell if it is something that is humble just by the smell. Yesterday I was confronted with that smell. It was inside a beautiful building walking the paces of some wonderful people. This building is filled with the finest tile floors surrounded by a huge skylight in the middle of a commons area, with a coffee stand and bookstore around the commons. The second floor is filled with offices of very educated people, Phd's Doctors, professors and theologians. A building that is used everyday to educate people in the knowledge of God's truths. Man can get so caught up in the education and being filled with knowledge and forget to use it. Our churches can get so caught up in knowledge and forget to use it. But this is different, in this building the aroma was not Nautica cologne, it wasn't the elegant fragrance that one might think. The aroma and fragrance was that of B.O. it was the aroma of physical poverty, it was that of homelessness in the midst of a seminary building. You see 2 worlds collide when the theologians meet the worldly physical poverty around them. The professors and students here have not forgotten to display their knowledge they provide a meal for over 200 people that the world looks down on. The floor is stained the smell is not the finest. But isn't that the smell of humility, isn't that the smell of Jesus example to wash each other's feet, The smell of living the faith to the least of these. The seminary is teaching the church and leading the way for students to get out of their education and into living their hearts. That is the seminary I have chosen to take part in. I will be taking some classes this year and going full time the following year. A seminary that the higher class in the world's eyes eat with the lower class in the world's eyes and all are equal in the room where daily bread is served. The smell will stick with me and will challenge me to continually be living my education as i start to be trained for God's glory