Coming Together

My academic career has began to culminate…finally…and has left me with a passion.

I started Seminary to study my faith. That study has been a fascinating one. Not only do I know more about God, but my faith is stronger (for long time readers, yes I have blasted Seminary in the past, but roll with me here…everything has positives as well as negatives). My eyes see more clearly. My mind reflects more deeply. I would even dare to say that my heart loves more fully now, although not nearly at the level it should. It’s a work in progress.

My undergraduate work was in communication and theatre. Melding that with graduate work in Biblical studies and faith seems odd. Some have even scratched their heads and called them opposite ends of the spectrum. The fact that I have been in the behavioral health profession for some time makes some raise an eyebrow also, because it just seems like a different world than my creative side. I think most people shrug and say, “well, everyone has to pay the bills, right?”

I confess that these different aspects of my life have seemed to be a dichotomy at times, contradictory at times, even completely at odds with each other at times. Any creative personality reading this can share the pain of having to do one thing to pay the bills, while that very employment robs you of the time you desperately need to create. I’ve felt the same frustration with Seminary, because grad school sucks away your time as nothing else will. Then I went and got married…when attempting to manage my time over the last few months, I’ve feared for my sanity on occasion.

Now, though, I can see where God has been bringing me. Not in the whole, but at least a crucial chunk of it. I can see where all the threads of my life intersect. I have a starting point, at least (about time…I’m 32, for crying out loud!). At that starting point is this:

I am passionate about, and fascinated by, how faith intersects with art, and with culture. There is a key there to our lives and to our society. Somehow, the three must integrate, although the church has largely seen them at odds with each other through history. My future writing will, at least in part, take this direction. And I can’t wait to get started.

So, a couple of changes, I think, are in order.

I changed the subtitle of my blog to “thoughts on faith, art, and culture.” I’d say that I’m changing the focus of what I’ll write about here, but I can’t truly say that that will happen, because I think that this has been germinating in my mind since I started this blog, so what I’ve written here has always focused on those three things. I’m certainly no authority on this or any other subject, but I’m going to have fun exploring it!

I’ve also discovered that my wife, Karen, is fascinated more than a little by the same topic. If anything, she has wisdom in vast amounts, and, being that we’re joined in this life-journey together, it only makes sense that she and I explore this together. So, Karen will be blogging here as well. My blogosphere friends, please make her feel welcome!

That being said, I have a little less than a week before classes begin for my final year. So, as excited as I am about that, it’s bittersweet as always, because time will become a much more precious commodity than it already is in a week or so.

So, pardon me while I go and weep over the end of my summer…