I attend seminary at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, through their online program. The online aspect is not ideal, but it is functional for me and my family. So far, I’m learning (I hope). More than anything, I’m being exposed to scholarship and lots of reading the average person wouldn’t read (not even me).
I have learned two very important lessons in the first eleven weeks of this semester. First, I am totally not an academic. (Can’t you tell after I used the word totally?) God has given me a shepherd’s heart, not a professor’s heart. I love to teach doctrine, but I love to herald the good news more. I love to dig into finer points of theology, but I love to motivate and challenge to pursue holiness more. Seminary is pricking and prodding my academic skin, which is thin and frail.
Secondly, in general, it takes a lot of work for me to focus when I read. Don’t let this blog fool you, I am not that smart. It is hard for me to comprehend anything above a college football article on ESPN.com. I often find myself reading the same sentence three or four times. Seminary is pushing me to rely on the Holy Spirit to control my literary ADHD when it comes to the teleological argument and the neo-orthodoxy movement.
I love to read and write, it just takes a different shape in my personal time and here on the blog than in an academic setting. Thankfully, because of the cross, God’s grace is abundant, fresh, and powerful. And its fountain doesn’t run dry over seminarians like me.