It all started on a pool deck when I was in between jobs, during the summer of my first year of marriage. I figured I was starting seminary so I needed to get used to reading, so I read for hours on end every day, rereading old favorites and new finds, immersing myself in the world of theology.
Theology is simply the study of God, but in those months it became a place to call home—a centering place—where I wanted to know God more for the nurturing of my soul and in order to be able to lead others on that same journey.
Those poolside reads were a critical time in my life. I had made the choice to leave the vocational field I had spent the previous 4 years getting a degree in. Seminary was not so much a decision based on calling, but more so a wild guess. Like, “God, maybe this?”
Word by word, page by page, book by book, God ignited in me a desire to know Him more deeply. Reading, studying, it was work, and yet, a joy. In all my years of work and study, I only knew work, the joy in it helped me realize I was going in the right direction.
It took many years for my calling to get clarified. It took the input of trusted colleagues, many “am I going the right way Lord?” prayers, and many moments of doubt where I felt incapable and unqualified, but really my calling toward being a minister of God’s people began on the deck of a pool, when I sensed I was being drawn toward a vocational home.
