Spiritual Formation in Seminary

It’s no secret that I love to study the Bible. My children and wife regularly find themselves listening to the definition of a Hebrew word and how it illuminates and connects scripture. At work, I lead the local site employee Christian group. In my church, I ask questions at board meetings to press the church toward scriptural alignment. In my life group, those who gather look to me as a trusted voice when we struggle through difficult biblical passages ever onward toward Jesus. I have taken to heart the psalmist’s plea to meditate day and night on the instruction of Yahweh (Psalm 1:2) and Jesus’ prayer that we take hold of eternal life: knowing Yahweh (John 17:3).

I’ve been practicing and playing guitar quite a bit over the last year (one my covid hobbies), and I’ve been buying more equipment than is necessary for my ability level (quite low). When I travel to Taiwan later this year to pick up my kids, I want to bring a guitar with me, but space is limited. I found a $550 travel guitar, but instead, I decided to build my own by sawing up a $35 electric guitar I found on craigslist.

Here’s how I did it…

I heard a new voice on the radio, “Fleet commander, what are your orders?” Static. My comms flashed with battle updates, we were losing ships fast. “Fleet commander, please respond.”

My heart sunk. I was training to become a skirmish commander, but this fleet needed someone with hardened battle experience. My finger twitched on the comm link. Should I take command? Then over the radio, “This is Alex, I’m taking command until Khun responds. All remaining units form up on me.” His callsign flashed in comms. I realized, I’d been holding my breath and exhaled.

I checked my shields and punched warp to get back in the fight.

We handle year ends differently. Becca is downstairs watching a show, I’m upstairs reflecting (brooding) over the past year and planning (dreaming) of the next. 2021 was an interesting year full of many accomplishments, disappointments, and challenges. Here are some of them–mostly for my own processing and future remembrance.

After reading over this, let me reiterate: this is almost entirely for my own personal year end processing, you probably won’t get much out of it.

I’ve been reading through the parables of Jesus that describe the kingdom of the heavens, so I can better understand this kingdom I’m a part of. The parable of the yeast always interested me as a way to explain the kingdom: yeast is very small but it permeates and transforms the dough. As a winemaker, I think about yeast more than the average person. In wine, it does the same: a tiny amount permeates and transforms the whole into something new.