God's Patience

I have to give a 3-4 minute speech Tuesday for PR501 Foundations of Proclamation. It's a personal witness speech about some way God has ministered to, or spoken directly to me in the last six months. I'm in seminary. God has called me to vocational ministry. This should not be hard. Yeah. I drew a blank. The seminary experience by it's nature is hectic. Add to that a loving wife and a baby on the way and it creates a lot of static which can make it harder to hear that still small voice. Thankfully God is not above using repetition. God used an angel to turn Balaam's donkey to the side three times. God told Joshua not to be afraid three times. I've lost track of how many times Jesus corrected Peter. This is similar to my call. People from out of the blue started asking me when I was going to seminary. It happened at a Bible study. It happened on the Walk to Emmaus. Some of the people who asked me this question where people I knew, and others were people I'd only met in passing. They are not the reason I chose to accept God's calling. They were just God's way of getting my attention. Over the last year God has been using that same technique to get my attention again. It started with Dr. Arnold in Exegesis of first and second Samuel when he said, "Context is King." That made sense for exegesis, but I heard it again in Pastor and Church Discipleship the following spring. This semester I have been beaten about the head and shoulders with this message in Foundations of Proclamation, Teaching the Whole Bible to Youth and Adults, Mentored Ministry, and in some ways even in History of American Methodism. There are so many instances where context could be important, and it would appear God is trying to make sure that message has been made very clear to me.