“Final” Reflections

So here I am, writing once again in the midst of a snowstorm. I guess I don’t mind being snowed in as much now that I am almost done with finals, and have finished the Tuesday night class I was helping with at my Teaching Congregation.

For as much as I plan and hope to get final papers done before the very last day they are due, it rarely happens. It’s that darn perfectionist in me. So here I am, putting the last touches on my Prophets paper, which is due today. I’ve been working on it since Thursday. That’s both the good thing and the danger of having 5 days after everything else is due to write my last paper! Yet I am not so much writing the paper for the class as for myself, since the professor told us not to try to impress him, but write something useful for ourselves. It’s nice to have that freedom, so I’m taking him up on it and writing about how my own life has been impacted by studying the prophets--a topic I’ve felt brewing all semester, but now have the incentive to sit down and write out.

So, if the snow lets up tomorrow I’ll try to get out and do what little Christmas shopping I do. It’s hard to believe Christmas is this weekend, especially since I’m just finishing the semester today. And in the midst of it all, I almost keep forgetting that I’ve been invited to preach at a church the day after Christmas. It’s a fairly new Spanish-speaking congregation in Roseville, where I was first invited to preach in August. It was an awesome experience of seeing how God gave me a message to preach that was in line with what the congregation had been studying. I never know quite what to expect when I’m a guest preacher somewhere, especially in newer churches where the membership seems to be constantly shifting. Not knowing your audience and not using a lectionary just makes depending on God more exciting!

So after Christmas and my sermon preparation is past, I’ll have just a week to get ready for my J-term intensive class. The professor sent the syllabus out near the beginning of November, so I got the hint that I should probably start reading ahead of time. So with Christmas coming up, preaching, New Year’s, and lots of Jürgen Moltmann reading, this break will probably fly by. I still plan to enjoy every minute of it, reminding myself that this is what I signed up for when I came to seminary!