Captain’s Log, 2008

It all started with the most weak-sauce fireworks presentation my eyes have ever gazed upon!

I’m starting to get the feeling that 2008 is going to be nothing short of an interesting year.  Generally speaking I would not consider myself to be the type to make predictions or assumptions concerning the near or distant future.  It would seem, from past experience, that the more I plan the more my plans get upset by the onset of reality.  God has a way of both opening and closing doors where we have not planned, and for that I am grateful.  Ultimately, He knows what is best for us and our own plans often run in contradiction to what might be considered “our best interest” in terms of eternal perspective.

For a long time I’ve considered what I ought to do with my education. My first year of seminary could be described as awful at best and it left me with more than a bittersweet taste in my mouth.  Since then I’ve half-applied to Northwest Baptist Seminary, but due to its highly rigid and inflexible schedule that possibility became whisked away.  Since then I have realized that seminary wasn’t going to be working for me anytime soon.  It then became my plan to pay off my school loans as quickly as possible, within a year or two, and then continue education and/or enter into full-time ministry.

As I mentioned before, God often has plans that contradict our own, and I think that’s great!  My truck broke down and I was forced to sell it off and accrue more financial debt with auto loans.  Becoming “debt free” is now a few years away as far as I can tell. What to do with that time?  I can see what could happen.  Knowing me, I will reach the end of that time period and then say, “Ok, now what?”  I pretty much know, hope, and trust that I will someday end up in a church or school (either of which may be a mission-field situation) doing full-time ministry; I need more education.  Therefore I’ve recently started researching different programs at Northwest University and Seattle Pacific University to see what they might offer that would enrich my understanding and develop my skills for the future.  At NWU I’m looking at the Masters in Teaching and the Masters of Clinical Psychology (International Community Care and Development track).  SPU is far less likely of a choice for me, but their M.A. Education and  Masters in Curriculum/Instruction both catch my eye.  It’s hard to say, but at this point I think I might start in the fall.

I don’t have any New Year’s resolutions, I’m sorry to say.  It seems to me that if something’s important enough to be changed, then why wait till the new year to change it?  Or something like that.  I do, however, have goals for this year.  Some of those goals are financial, some of them are…social?  Some are academic, and some are what some would call “spiritual”, though I say that with hesitation since I usually see all things as being spiritual in a sense. So one of those goals is this: A new and consistent blog. It will consist of news items, video posts, some personal stuff, and much more. So here it is! I will be mirroring the same posts on my old xanga site, but this one might have a little more and it will be more beautiful for sure. Feel free to update links and whatnot, but regardless I will be posting pretty much the same stuff on each.  I would just stick with Xanga, but I’m kind of sick of the format and this site will be more non-Xanga-member-friendly.

So, here’s to you and the rest of the fan club!  If there is a fan club.  First post is soon to come!

-in HIS strength,

Stephen

Ezra 7:10