Starting Seminary

(That's my work book and outlines)

Right before I moved to Spain, I remember thinking like, "how am I going to learn an entire language? There are so many words and grammatical things to understand, so much detail and I am not a detail person." The thought of the next time I'm in America I will be able to speak and understand Spanish was crazy to me, and I just didn't know if I could really do it.

I think about that as I start seminary. The huge books, the lectures, the reading, like the most information in the world (it feels like). How will I be able to remember all that?? It feels like such a daunting task ahead of me... 90 credit hours, I will have 3 by January. Ha! That's like saying I'm going on an hour and a half run and I've gone for 3 minutes.. haha. And sometimes I'm like, can I really do this?... It's how I felt about learning an entire language.

The thing that kept me motivated when I was learning Spanish was not the fact that I will know more, but it was the fact that it helped me relate to and communicate with the people I loved in Spain. In the front of all my Spanish journals was the verse:

"Knowledge puffs up but love builds up." 1 Corinthians 8:1.

I struggled through language learning. I was not the best at learning a language, in fact even after being there a year and a half I still confused my el's and la's. But my goal was to love well even if that meant laboring through material, studying, practicing, and spending a lot of time not understanding the jokes and conversations around me. But eventually I began to get it..

So for seminary...if it's just about information and knowledge, I won't last. But if my end goal is to love people well, to communicate the Bible better, to introduce people to Jesus better, to build other's up in ministry over the course of my life, then maybe I can do it. Maybe... I still feel overwhelmed, but I felt that way with Spanish and I did it. So maybe I can do this too.

Here is a conversation about seminary I had with my sister Amy yesterday:
Amy: How is seminary going?
Me: It's going well, it's a lot of information, but I'm learning some really cool things. I bet it will totally come in handy for speaking and stuff!
Amy: haha isn't that point??
Me: Oh yeah.. I guess so!

It will come in handy for speaking. But even more I hope it helps me know and love Jesus and his word more (not just know about him) and communicate him and his word better in whatever facet of ministry I am involved with through out my life.