A Bit Sentimental I Suppose...

I really should be heading to bed right now. A few minutes ago, I put my head down on my desk and fell asleep, but promptly awoke because I was starting to get a crook in my neck. And yet, here I am, blogging at 11:30 at night because a thought came to me. It's one of those thoughts that come fleetingly and yet stay with you for several lingering moments afterward. My thought: "How strange it is, the road life takes us; the people we meet, the things we find ourselves doing that we never thought in a million years we'd do."

If you knew me in college, you would have never, ever thought I'd end up getting two masters degrees from a Lutheran seminary. You'd never thought, "I bet she's going to get a Masters of Art in the History of Christianity and a Masters of Theology in Islamic Studies and then go to another seminary to get her PhD in Medieval Church History with an emphasis in the early Crusades era in Palestine." Seriously, at that time, I would have never thought it either. But here I am, going into my second year of the Masters of Theology program at Luther Seminary, studying Islamic Studies, preparing to take the language exam at the end of the summer in German, and gathering all the materials I need to apply to other seminaries for my PhD in Medieval Church History.

It is absolutely shocking where life takes us, how we as children of God meander the many roads of life, towards our given vocations; some as pastors, some as lay leaders in the church and communities throughout the world, some as teachers and professors, others as lawyers, doctors, delivery workers, military men and women, etc., etc.

This thought process often comes to me at random, but most often when I run into, or catch up with someone I have not seen or talked to in a long time. It is exciting to see where their lives and vocations have taken them. It is fascinating to find out what has changed and what has stayed the same. As for myself, too much has happened for me to be the same person I was when I started college, too much joy and too much pain. And that is life. I like to say, "Life is just one shit storm after another, but every once in a while there is a clearing, a glimmer of hope upon the horizon, which we must cling to, hope and faith get us through it all somehow. And then the shit storm starts again after only seconds of relief, but we remember the clearing and smile."