Find Your Voice, Sing your Song.......

What promised to be a very stressful week with a 277 page book to read, 2 assignments due and my first major graduate school exam in Old Testament turned to be the most blessed week of the year starting withEmmanuel Lartey's Sermon in chapel on Tuesday.  You must listen.  It was unbelievable.  Wednesday I spent the morning reading my 277 page book at Barnes and Nobles where I discovered Southwest Quiche and had a Banana Strawberry Smoothie to go with it!  By the time I left there I was mostly finished with my 277 page book and was prepared to go defend free love as an assignment for my Communalism in America Class.  What was so amazing about that experience was that we were in a safe space to be able to discuss such controversial matters that would have never come up at SBTS where I attended 20 years ago without major repercussions to the professor.  These are all discussions that could come up in our careers with various people so it is certainly a discussion we should be opening our minds up to and wrestling with.  Wednesday night I gathered with my WNC classmates to study for the exam.  I am so glad to have these two wonderful individuals in my life to share pizza, wings, stories and study with!  I returned home Wednesday night and retreated to my room to continue my studies.  At midnight my body told me it was time to go to sleep.  I laid down and pretended to give it what it wanted but along with all my classmates, my mind was not willing.  It sounds like we all spent the night laying awake, our minds too full of anticipation to go to sleep.  I awoke to my alarm clock at 5:00 Am and was at the train station by 6:15 AM arriving at school at 7:00.  On the train I read a facebook post from our Student council president stating that he was praying for the first year students as we take our first "celebration of learning."  What a great reframe and fresh perspective.  When I arrived at school I stopped by the food court for a chick fil-a biscuit (no haters please, it was the quickest thing and they sure do taste good.) and a boost of caffeine.  From there I headed to the classroom to do last minute reading.  I was not the only one who opted for an early arrival.  The classroom was already full at 7:15 AM for an 8:00 AM class.  We all sat quietly looking over notes and anticipating when an announcement came into the classroom via a 2nd year student that Dunkin Donuts and coffee were available courtesy of the 2nd year students.  What a grand community I have landed myself in.  We took the exam as the minutes ticked away on the big screen in front of us.  5 identification questions, 6 or 7 matching questions, 2 name the source passages and 2 of 3 essay questions (worth 80% of the grade) I read the test through twice.  I then knocked out the quickest and moved onto the essays.  As I began writing I realized that I knew more than I thought about the way the Pentateuch was formed and the promises/threats of Abraham's time.  My friend Aryn was one of the first if not the first to finish.  Little by little as the clock approached 9:20, we began filing out of the class room and the lobby and halls were abuzz.  We were all a bit relieved I think.  We had all come to the realization that we have learned some stuff in the last 3-4 weeks.  We had survived and we definitely were more connected to each other having gone through this experience.  Although I had an assignment due for my 1:00 class, I decided that going to Chapel to be in God's presence and to thank him for the miracles I had seen occur was a must and boy am I glad I went.  My friend Marcus and his friend played African drums, we had an old testament theme in most all that we experienced in Chapel.  The highlight was Noel Erskines well presented sermon.    This is another must listen for you!     To give you a preview His sermon was based mostly on the psalms and it was about each of us having our own unique voice and our own unique song to sing.  He challenged us to rid ourselves of our parent's voices, our professors voices, our mentor's voices, our pastors' voices and to discover our voice and our song!  I have some clues as to what song I must sing though God and I are still in conversation about it.  What about you......have you discovered your unique voice and song? 

Praise be to God for I have been waiting for 30 years for such a time as this.