As you can tell from the title I have been wrestling with the "negative" side effects of coming to seminary. ( don't worry, keep reading, God is good).
When we finally decided to actually move here and be obedient to God's calling in Adam's life, we had a little over 2 weeks to get here, get a place to live and get jobs before his classes started. When we got back from Israel and had still not sold our house we took a week or so to just pray and seek guidance about what we should do. We got mixed answers. Some people said "well stay in your house since you have to pay mortgage and wait til you sell it to move to TX". Others said " Go"...God will work everything else out.
My husband leaned more towards going, I leaned more towards staying b/c it made sense.
One morning during our week of prayer I woke up, went to the bathroom and heard from God. I know....TMI ( too much information). But honestly, God told me "go".I got back in bed with Adam and said " i think we should move to Texas".
So we did and within 3 days we had housing and I had a very promising job offer at the seminary. The drive down to Texas was looonnngg but I was able to feel God's peace and promises the whole way there.
When we got here we moved in and I started working the next day. The work environment in a seminary is very comfortable to work in as we are all believers. However, since I was working in housing I was able to hear people's stories as they signed thier leases only minutes after pulling into Fort Worth with thier UHauls and belongings. The story I kept hearing over and over was that "coming to seminary did not make sense".
This was 100 % re-emphasized at a block party we went to this past Tuesday. One of our neighbors threw it as a way to meet neighbors and hopefully start up a bible study. While talking to people we heard others who had moved here while still paying mortgage on a home, or who had left thier entire family to move 1000s of miles away (some chose to come here instead of a closer seminary).
Then our neighbor who threw the block party was asked where his wife was? Here's what he said : Well, I have been married for 26 years now and we moved here last year as we felt God calling us to full time ministry. He started a degree in the Masters of Divinity program and thought he was heading towards becoming a pastor. Soon, through chapel and others he felt God calling him to full time mission work....overseas. This was apparently too much for his wife and one day as he returned home from class he found that she had packed her stuff and left. She is now sending him divorce papers and each time he refuses to sign them. At first he said " Ill leave seminary, Ill move back home with you". She said No. Then the president of our seminary told him that he had to leave...he had to go fix his marriage. This seemed to be the right move until our neighbor realized that God called him to seminary and until God called him out of it he was staying put. He pleads with his wife and tries to date her but she still sends divorce papers. He tells us that she is a believer, this is just a trying time.
This situation obviously makes no sense. But then again we are told in Luke 9:23 that " he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."
I would say that many students are moving to seminary as they deny themselves and choose to take up thier cross. I am in no way boasting but am excited that God has revealed himself to us through our frustration with our house not selling. There is hardly anyone here that has come because it just made sense. For that reason God has called us together to bear one another burdens as we are all here to potentially further the Kingdom of Heaven. Our focus is on eternal things as our current situation is not ideal. We long for the day when mortgages, money, jobs with benefits won't matter anymore.
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