Man oh man, October was BUSY y’all! I had to look back over photos to remind myself when this month actually began because it’s all starting to blur. Just in the last two weeks we went to the state fair, I had a birthday, I went to Harrisonburg for homecoming, Madelyn got engaged, Matt’s band performed, and now it’s halloween. It’s been wild.
This month has contained so many fun places, people, and moments, while also being packed with a lot of time spent pondering big thoughts and reflecting on life. The thought that seems to constantly be on my mind these days is how to convert my passions and skills into an actual job. A tale as old as time. My internship for fellows is definitely helping me sort through that thought as I’m getting to see firsthand what it is like working in a church setting. I’m figuring out how to have the place I work also be the place that I worship at, and discovering how to separate those two things rather than have my work lens replace my ability to freely come to church to worship.
One passion that has been reignited within me over the last month through our classes and volunteer opportunities is my concern for justice in this world. Definitely a BIG thought. One of our classes for fellows is called Just Leadership and it is focused on realizing how central God’s heart for justice is to the bible narrative. Through scripture we see justice is important to God because it is who he is, what he loves, what Jesus came to do, what Jesus calls us to do, and that by seeking justice we can experience the fullness of God (if anyone wants the scripture references to those ideas: Isaiah 30:18, Isaiah 61:8, Luke 4:16-20, Micah 6:8, Isaiah 58:10-12). In our class we have started having discussions about how to be “just leaders” in the world, as well as taken time to hear stories and lament over the injustice our world is facing. This month we also got to volunteer at Shark Tank, which is an event put on by a local non-profit called Mission Triangle that gets investors and community leaders from around Raleigh to come together to hear the business plans of three local non-profits and then think through ways to support and grow those non-profits as well as invest in their mission. All of these nonprofits have Christian roots and it was so inspiring to hear how the Lord has called each of them to this work to glorify God and care for his people. Rather than feeling like the amount of brokenness in the world makes seeking justice a lost cause, our class has reminded me that Jesus will restore all things through himself and God has equal care and dominion over every inch of the earth. Restoring justice to the earth does not fall on man alone, PRAISE GOD. A guest speaker at one of our classes said it well, that rather than trying to “do justice,” let us instead be people who live lives marked by a care and concern for justice. So while I still don’t have the answer of how that will play into any future vocation I pursue, I set that as my aim.
As I said, this month has been full of big thoughts. In addition to lots of thinking about my passions and future employment, I have also had big thoughts on who I am and how God created me uniquely. We had workshops on both the Myers Briggs and Enneagram (I’ve concluded I’m an ISFJ and enneagram 1 if anyone is dying to know), and we’ve started our family systems class. This time of reflection and processing of the information has been really sweet to understand myself better and see myself through the eyes of my creator.
October has been a slight information and event overload but in the best way! I am still SO GRATEFUL to be here, love my fellow fellows more than they know, and am trying to soak up every second of this program because it is already FLYING BY!! Thanks for reading!
Next-up: November.
-Linsey