Simply Christianity

It is easy to get caught up in things.  For anyone that is in seminary and thinking about continuing to stay in the Academic vocation, your passions instantly turn into something you have to be really really good at so you can get into post-graduate work.

I am finding that getting caught up in that really screws things up.  It makes it not as fun.  I have just spent 6 months ingesting ideas and hoping that I can articulate them in a manner that impresses professors.  I feel like I need to re-read alot of cool books and actually think about them this time.

Over the last week or so I have been spending my nights in the Book of Common Prayer, reading through the epistles, and AW Tozer's "Pursuit of God."  I still do "other" reading during the day, but this time at night is slowly turning into my treasure. 

This isn't a stab at academia, I think it actually is an enhancement.

No matter what we seek to do with our knowledge about Jesus, we can't forget our Christianity-maybe we should even disregard that word personally.  We can't forget the life with Father we have been given through Jesus.  Everything is actually pretty simple.  We just need to follow Jesus, everything else will work out. 

We laugh and discount this as something we heard in jr. high at youth camp, but it actually is what we have been needing to do all along.

Comments

[Isaac]

I think you are right on track. It is the simple that reminds us that we belong to Jesus, and in him alone are all things (including PhD work) possible.

In fact, I would go so far as to challenge the assumption that a rigid focus is needed to get into post grad work at all. I think it is a common misconception that is propagated by a desire to be in control of what we call "our work", when in fact every task that we do, whether it is scrubbing the toilet or waxing eloquent about theology, belongs to the Lord.

Definitely take the time to reread things that you think you should, and keep spending that time in prayer and devotion. A research focus will just sort of eventually happen when we don't try so hard, but it is more immediately necessary to cultivate that dependence on God.

You are a good man, Chad, and you are definitely on the right track here.