The Bungee Cord. 8-18025
Hello,
Many more years ago than it seems, I graduated from college with a BS in Psychology. After taking one of the courses, my professor, in my junior year, asked me if I would be willing to TA (teaching assistant) for the same course for the next year. It was an honor I gladly welcomed. During my college years, I had decided to be a pastor which necessitated four years of seminary education after college graduation. The application process required many things: taking the GRE, writing numerous essays, providing my college records, and getting several recommendations. One of the recommendations that was required was one from a professor from the college I had attended.
Believing the professor that new me best and would give me the best recommendation, I asked that psychology professor if he would be willing to write one for me. When I asked him, I was taken a bit by surprise, because he hesitated. After pausing a bit, he said to me, “I will be glad to give a recommendation for you, but I believe that you could help the world out far more if you pursued an advanced degree in Psychology.”
Those words must have sunk deep into my heart, because I still remember them nearly 46 years later. And now, as a retired pastor 42 years later, I wonder if he was right? There are certainly many people in our secular world who would agree with him. It is a world that either doesn’t believe in a divine presence or lives as if there is not one. That which motivates their lives is not a relationship with a god based upon thankfulness to that god. Even in Biblical times, Paul, one of the writers of the books in the New Testament wrote that he was deemed “a fool”.
Maybe there are those who would dub me a fool, too, and maybe I am, because when one is embraced by unconditional love one does what the world sees as foolish things. It happens when people fall in love. They give up their jobs. They move to new places. They trust one another with uncompromised certainty. One of my seminary professors said that it bears noting that we commonly say that we “fall” into love, and we who have fallen know the uncontrollable condition of falling.
I have come to see that my falling began when the waters of Baptism splashed over me and I was drenched in the love of God….the love of God so zealous for me that he would send his son to make me his own…the love of God so unconditional for me that God would not let anything, or anyone (including my rebellious self) steal me away from him….the love of God so deep that God has determined to love me not only for this lifetime, but forever. Living in that love I find myself graced with a “peace that surpasses all human understanding”, a light that reaches into my darkness, a hope that no burden can crush, a heart that sees the God-given value of each person, a rock on which I can stand when the world trembles.
I went to seminary to be a pastor because I wanted to be someone who spreads that kind of love, like peanut butter on bread, all over the world. You don’t have to be a pastor to do that, psychologists can do that, too, but I sensed that God had given me the faith, skills, and the drive to be one who so focusses on the “spreading of peanut butter” so that I might help others, including psychologists, “spread peanut butter”, too.
I am certain that I could have brought a lot of good to the world if I had pursued an advanced degree in psychology, but as I look at what a lot of people are trying to spread all over the world, I believe that when my days are done I will stand before this God who loves me and the world with amazing grace, and I will hear God say to me, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
