The End is Here

Today I am to be graduated from Seminary and back into the "real world" (whatever that is). This, I believe, I am ready for. It has been an interesting four years to say the least. From learning Greek in the summer of 2005 to barely passing Clinical Pastoral Education the next summer; from Hebrew to Systematic Theology and Internship to Preaching, the entire process has been marked by a number of significant highs and much struggle. My candidacy committee through the Nebraska Synod, ELCA has been wonderful and helpful for my preparation. I am also very thankful to the professors at Wartburg Theological Seminary who, despite whatever early misconceptions I may have had of them, have been nothing but supportive and collegial to me. I hope to get to work with some of them in future years on congregational and synodical projects.

For most of the previous 17 years of schooling in my life, I lived a life marked by the law. I struggled with trying to get good grades, with competing with fellow classmates, with the demands of professors and teachers, and with behavioral expectations - few of which I truly lived up to well, given all of the "potential" I was repeatedly told I had. But at WTS, I experienced for the first time in my life, a place truly rooted in grace. I didn't feel the demands listed above; somehow, I was able to get past the law of having to learn and experience instead the grace of getting to learn. What a joy that has been! I hope to carry this with me into my first call and beyond. Grace to you and peace from the God the father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.