In 7th grade I took a typing class. It was
required. Too many 13 year-olds were shoved into a tiny room with tiny
keyboards and spent hours each week with paper covering our hands typing books
of the Bible as fast as we could. Each week we took a typing test. The fastest
and most accurate typist got to use the REAL computer the next week. They got
to sit at a full sized desk where they could stretch out their elbows and
actually see all of their words as they worked. The rest of us sat with our
little AlphaSmart keyboards and only saw three lines of text at a time.
source: google images
I got to sit at the real computer once. One of the girls in
our class was from England and she had taken typing lessons for years. She
almost always got to use the real computer.
Practice pays off.
This morning I am preparing for a class, Missional Church.
It is my task to read everything I can by and about Dietrich Bonhoeffer and
speak from his perspective as our class comes together to discuss the church.
As I read primary sources and gather quotes I am thankful for those hours in
that tiny room as I learned to type quickly without looking at my keyboard. I
now move nimbly through the necessary task of quotation and get on with the
more pertinent task of considering what these words mean for the essence of the
church.
I complained daily about keyboarding
class when I was in the midst of it.
This week God is inviting me and guiding me to rest in the
unknown.
Right now, I am in a season of preparation. Seminary can be
defined as “seed bed”. I like that image a lot…but sometimes it is hard working
with seeds. They can be so tiny and nondescript.
Sometimes it is hard being
a seed. Sometimes the dirt is dark and cold and you know you are buried in it
for a reason but you wish more than anything you could know what that reason is.
What will it look like when you finally push up through the surface? What will
the fruit be? What seemingly mundane tasks will I look back upon with
gratitude? How are these friendships and committees and jobs and prayer and
scripture coming together and forming me to be more like Christ? How will I emerge
and serve out of my transformation?
In life, as in 7th
grade keyboarding, we often only see a few lines of text at a time. There are
moments we sit at the teacher’s desk with words sprawled out in front of us.
There are moments when we have a glimpse of what life will be like after the
AlphaSmart exile. But those moments are few and far between.
It is only through faith in my graceful, loving God that I have
a shot at navigating this time peacefully.
It is through experience that I proclaim that God is
faithful and working even when I don’t know how…even when I can’t see all of
the text…even when the seeds are not yet a garden.
Rest. Rest in the unknown.
