In this moment...

So as you can tell by my previous post... life has been a bit... intense lately. I have been running from one thing to the next to the next and even now I am in that place between one world and another. My room in my Kentucky home is now empty and I am back at my parents house for two weeks until I move into a parsonage later on next month (June). H0wever, my heart is full to breaking with goodbyes... wedding goodbyes, school goodbyes, roommate goodbyes... it really has come to an end this Asbury Theological Seminary thing... It really is over. Now I need to press into the Father more than ever, rely on my friend and brother Lord Jesus, and breathe deeply the Holy Spirit. Only this will produce in my heart the sweet fragrance of rest and peace. Only the love and unbroken community of the Trinity will remind me that though miles part me from my loved ones' in Kentucky who themselves will soon be spread to the four corners, we remain the Body of Christ. Baptized into constant Communion with one the Lord and one another.

The Last Few Weeks

May 15-19 - Finals Week (All my papers needed to be rewritten due to computer failure.)
May 20 - Family and Friends Arrive for Graduation
May 21 - Graduation Day at Asbury/Graduation Reception Party afterward
May 22 - Family and Friends Leave/Church/Jeremy's Graduation Party
May 23 - Travel to Indiana to meet with Church
May 24 - Travel Back to Kentucky
May 25 - Meet with Father Peter for Goodbye Lunch
May 26 - Go to monastery for much needed reflection
May 27 - Have Lunch with Harriet/Clear out box at work/ Assist at Friends wedding rehursal dinner
May 28 - Go to lunch and Museum with Friends/Decorate altar for wedding/attend Wedding/ Attend Reception/ Clean up after reception.
May 29 - Begin Packing/Last Sunday at Saint Patrick's Church
May 30 - Pack, Pack, Pack/Spur of the moment bar-b-que with Friends/Pack, Pack, Pack,
May 31 - Turn in keys at Asbury/Have Pizza with James/Load truck/ Say goodbye :( / Travel to Indiana
June 1st - Wash Car - Breathe (hopefully)
June 2-4 - North Indiana Conference (www.nicumc.org)

The Bare Essentials...

I am going to the monastery for a day and I was told to "pack light". You know, just bring along the essentials...

My Essentials -

Benedictine Cross
Anglican Rosary
Blue Like Jazz - Donald Miller
Celtic Daily Prayer Book
The Holy Rule of Saint Benedict
Bible
Poetry Journal
Pencils x 2

Spring Music Recital

So tonite was my final music recital as a seminarian and besides the lovely tunes from Les Miserables, I sang a song entitled... "Savior of my Heart" by Sheila Walsh, Bonnie Bielec, and John Hartley. I want to tell you about music in my life.

When I joined the Frankton United Methodist Church, we used to sing the most wonderful little song: "There's a Quiet Understanding". It was the song that characterized my early Christian Life. I still remember waliking into my dorm at a secular university and hearing someone plaing the piano in the lobby a song that was familiar to me and my not being able to remember what it was. Perplexed, I asked the gentleman playing at the piano what the title was and he told me, "There's a Quiet Understanding". The walls came crashing in, and filled me with memory.

There's a quiet understanding
When we're walking in the Spirit
There's a quiet understaning
When we gather in his name...
There's a love we feel in Jesus
There's a manna that he feeds us
That's a promise that he give us
When we gather in his name...
And we know when we're together
Sharing love and understanding
That our brothers and our sisters
Feel the oneness that He brings
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you Jesus!
For the ways you love and feed us,
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you Jesus!
Thank you, thank you, Lord.

This song was an Ebeneezer in my life, and now that I am finished with Seminary, the Lord has placed a new stone of memory, a stone of help into my life:

You alone, are the savior of my heart
Tender and Kind and true;
You alone are the shepherd of my soul,
Gracious in all you do
I will seek you in the morning
I will seek your face at night.
How lovely is your presence to me....
Oh Lord to me!
Take my heart, with all it's wandering ways,
Shelter me in your grace;
There I'll stay, till all my days are through
Then I shall see your face.
I will see you in the morning
I will see your face at night
How lovely is your presence to me...
O Lord to me!

This song above all the others that we have sung in Seminary is the perfect note to end on. There is more narrative here than usual, more music than is usually heard, more story than I will relate tonite. I will probably write more on this later.

I merely want to mention that oddly enough, after my recital... I have more peace about leaving this Blessed Holy Ground that is Asbury Theological Seminary.

Post Baptismal Drip

I remember something very powerful about the moment of my baptism many years ago in 1995. Particularly... I remember a single drop of water pouring down my cheek to the bottom of my chin... I remembered thinking that I wanted to wipe it away... but didn't. I didn't because in the moment, my heart welled up within me... overpowering my senses with the Spirit of God.

I remember the warmth of my pastors hand on my head... I remember the smell of the sanctuary... I remember... I remember... I remember...

So seminary has been the awaited consummation of my baptism... If you'll remember, at Baptism, they invoke your name over you... Naming and identity are very important parts of Christian life.

I remember arriving at seminary with one question: "What does it mean to have an identity in Christ?" I remembering praying the same question... and now I know.

"You are my Son in whom I am well pleased..."