hello hello

So I played with my schedule last week and instead of taking the  class on ‘group process’ I’ve changed into a half credit class on ‘spiritual formation’. So I’m in 3.5 credits this semester, not 4, and I’m ok with that. There are a few reasons for switching my schedule, one reason is that 4 required courses was overwhelming. I do think I could have done it, I’m not sure I could have done the courses, been involved in the vagina monologues, been part of the ultimate Frisbee planning team, gone to the gym, and still been active on the ecological awareness committee. Oh and get a job (hopefully).  So I switched out. Another reason is that I don’t think I could have taken the class and held it together for all 3 months. The course is a very introspective course, the prof tries to get the course to engage in group therapy. When none of the group members are therapists ( I don’t even think the prof is). I’ve been in therapy in the not so distant past and I didn’t think I could enter into that environment, however artificial, and be ok. So peace out group process, hello spiritual formation. Spiritual Formation is what I think everyone thinks seminary is.  We learn new ways to pray, an ongoing assignment is to spend 20ish minutes a day in prayer, and we discuss how the types of prayer help or don’t help our personal spiritual formation.  It’s really the only course we have where we talk about our own relationship with God. Everything else is wicked cool, like Hebrew, or kinda cool, like ethics, but definitely academic, not spiritual. We can take spiritual formation twice if we want and get an entire credit for it. It’s pretty awesome and after just the first day I feel like everyone should have to take it each semester. We have chapel three times a week and most of us end up at a church, but we’re still in grad school. And unless it’s built in to a class, it’s really hard to have time for spiritual formation in your everyday schedule, along with all the other work we’re doing.  Believe it or not there are seminarians who don’t go to church. They say that this is the last time in their life that they won’t have to be in church every Sunday, so they’re taking it off. I don’t feel as grounded if I don’t go to church, and I’m loving meeting a new church family. I made my goal for this semester (and then hopefully forever) to take Sunday as a real Sabbath. To not work or do schoolwork on Sundays. I try to not go to any stores, but that’s not happened. I find that if I spend all day Saturday on schoolwork that I end up at the grocery Sunday after church. But it’s been very good, very nice to have a day to relax and to catch up with people and to spend some time with myself and in thought and doing some spiritual formation on my own. I’ve found that a lot of what I want to do on Sundays is read books. It might be a silly mystery novel or it could be ‘the omnivores dilemma’ (great book! I’m slowly getting through it) but it’s so regenerative, I find my Mondays much more agreeable. Although that might have more to do with no more 8:30am Monday class…