T - 7 and counting...

No, not T - 7 seconds, minutes or hours...days. Yeah, I know, it seems a little less exciting when I put it that way, but imagine that the rocket about to launch is twenty-two plus years in the making. It then seems a little more exciting, huh? Well, there's no rocket, sorry about that; I hope you didn't have your hopes up. Rather, I'm taking about T - 7 days of classroom instruction left in my long educational career.

When I was just a curly-headed ankle biter in Mrs. Metzger's preschool class, I wanted to be a train engineer. That's right, a man who drives trains. I liked the striped engineer's cap, although I don't think they wear them anymore. I suppose I could still wear one if I kept it to myself.

In second grade (I promise I am not going to go through all my classes and teachers) I took Miss McMellon. She was a lot of fun, and she was dating this guy at the time named Dr. Sellers. He would come to class from time to time and teach us Greek, as he was a professor of some type. They eventually married, and at the time my long-lasting concern was that I now had to call her Mrs. Sellers, which sounded like a lot less fun than Miss McMellon.

In sixth grade I looked funny, had acne and met Rich Gaus. If you've never met Rich, you don't know that he's really tall- and I'm really not. And he had a locker below me. We probably should have switched lockers, but instead we became the best of friends. I think I was probably selfish about the top locker and didn't want to give it up. He and his wife just had a baby last week, by the way...here is a picture of Isabella Florence Gaus. The other thing I remember about middle school was Mrs. Fagley's amazing Civics class; I'll never forget the day she rolled up the sleeve on Frankie Buzzo's shirt and started talking about the second ammendment.

In high school I didn't want to be a train engineer any more, but instead thought I wanted to be a fighter pilot. I know that sounds ridiculous, but I wanted to go into the Navy and fly F-14s. I was serious about it, but being Red/Green Color Deficient isn't very conducive with reading the red and green lights on the sides of ships and planes, so I was out. I had a good time acting in and directing theatre productions, and had the best teacher ever for Sophomore English and Drama 1...my mom.

College brought a change of scenery: the cramped concrete jungle of Ft. Lauderdale for the rolling hills of Kentucky. The leaves fell from the trees at the end of the summer and there was a little snow, so I was happy. I studied television production, but wasn't all about it; but what else was there? A summer at home working at my home church was all God needed to call me to ministry (and a change in my major); Digital Field Production was supplanted by Dr. VanArragon's Seminar on Moral Responsibility, et al. I loved working through Philosophy and challenging my mind (although I was at times distracted by this girl I met), but I knew there was more to come.

After visiting two seminaries, I chose the classroom that has been my home for the past 4 1/2 years. My time at Southern has brought me a deeper understanding of Scripture through classes like Hermeneutics and Greek (the Greek that Mr. Sellers taught me in second grade came in handy after all!), and the preaching and teaching of my professors has had a profound impact on me personally, as well as on my still developing call to ministry. Parables, Pastoral Ministry and Preaching have been some of my favorite classes not just for the content, but for the growth I have seen in my own life. God has used my time here in amazing ways.

There you have it...22 and a half years of educational history and all of it comes to a close next Thursday. At 2:15pm I'll walk out of class for the last time. Maybe not forever...perhaps one day I'll be crazy enough to get my PhD, but for now, classes will start in the Spring and I will not be there. It's exciting and sobering at the same time. As Kristen and I wait for God to reveal the next step in our lives, this one quickly passes. I suppose now it's time to use all that stuff I learned, huh?