Where are you experiencing God’s presence in your life and in your seminary work?
I’ve been struggling for four days with how to answer this question in a way that is not just a list of people, places, and events. I created a collage to help me express my first year of seminary, art is a fun way for me to try and figure some answers out. I’ve included the collage as part of my reflection, and I’ve also decided there is no real way around it, this reflection will be a little bit like a list.
But lists aren’t always bad, lists of ingredients and instructions helped me make my first Red Velvet cake, our class syllabuses are essentially lists of expectations and readings, the bulletin to a Sunday service is an orderly list of events, I was near the end in a long list of performers in the Vagina Monologues, and even this reflection is on a list of things I need to do in the next five days. So lets tackle this list of lists one by one, as each item demonstrates somewhere I have found God with me this semester.
Red Velvet cake has always been a bit of a mystery to me. I’ve seen it several times each a slightly different shade of red. I can’t say as I’ve ever eaten it before this year, but as I had been invited to a potluck on Easter, with lots of genuine southerners, I felt I should try a southern dessert. I had planned on being at home for Easter, leaving Richmond in time to make it home for Maundy Thursday services and not coming back until the day after Easter. My plans were changed by my CPM and I found myself stuck here for the holiday. I was pretty sad about staying here, I’d been feeling a little isolated and not part of things, but the same day I found out I wasn’t going home for Easter, I was invited to a potluck with a bunch of other seminary students. As I made Red Velvet cupcakes from scratch I was struck by my circumstances and by how much God was really present, even in the events that seem to be unfortunate in the beginning. My missed trip home turned into a great time for fellowship, friendship and community building. All of which were watched over by God’s loving presence.
During Holy Week I attended services at Ginter Park. I’ve been going there all semester long and I’m enjoying the chance to get to know another church community. It seems to be the easy answer to say that God is present at a church, but it’s true! Every week I walk down Seminary Ave, usually with another seminary student and then I get to worship with a whole congregation full of people who care about the life of the church. From the music to the children playing in the front of the sanctuary, I feel God’s presence each week I am there.
A course syllabus can be a scary thing: readings, assignments, grade scales. All that expectation fit into just a few short pages. When I had committed to attending seminary one of the scariest things to me was Hebrew. All I knew about it was that it was totally different than anything I already knew, and that it would be hard. I was right on both counts, but what I didn’t expect was the powerful connection I felt with the language, nor the community that formed in our baby Hebrew class. As we spent the year learning the ancient language of our brothers and sisters and bonding over quiz accountability and Todd’s cooking, you could always feel God there. There was stress and anxiety as well as mystery and beauty, and through all of it there was God’s presence.
A very different place I found God was in the performance of the Vagina Monologues. Working with such strong women, performing for such a good cause, and being supported by so many students, faculty and staff was an amazing experience. I got to know the other women in the cast much better as we bonded over saying explicit words in a chapel and our dedication to women’s rights. If God isn’t present in the fight for social justice and equality, I don’t know where God is!
As should be apparent from the paper thus far, I’ve found God in expected places as well as unexpected ones. Almost every day, if I slow down to look, I can find the presence of God alive and well in my life. One of the things that Spiritual Formation class has helped me do this semester is to slow down and pay more attention to my own relationship with God. It’s easy to get caught up in the academics of seminary, but it’s just as important to be sure you’re nurturing your own relationship with God throughout the process. I’m thankful for the people and events that have helped me to be open to God’s presence this semester and I’m sure that as long as I keep my eyes open there will be many more moments over the next three years.
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