decisions

Alright, I sent out an email to my entire address book with a link to this blog telling them that they could come here to read the story about how we decided to go to Southern seminary and apply to become an Air Force Chaplain. So I guess I had better actually write the story out so that if by some huge stretch of the imagination someone comes looking for it, they will actually find it.

The whole idea of the chaplaincy has been kicking around since not long before I got out of the Army, but Dee Dee and I have always dismissed it. We thought, "No, I'm too conservative", "I wouldn't fit in with the inclusive atmosphere" and anything else we could come up with to shoot the idea down. But it just kept popping back up.

When we moved here for me to finish my undergrad degree it was with the plan of going on to seminary afterwards. Well, I started visiting seminaries all over the place but just didn't feel like any of them were where God was calling me to go. In fact, I felt like God was telling me "It's not time yet." So in the spring of 2004 we put seminary on hold and I began working on another degree (see the post below for that story).

In March of this year God told us it was time to start thinking about seminary again, and He told us pretty emphatically. Here's how it all happened. Dee Dee is in a Bible study group with some of the other women from our Sunday School class. The topic of the study on Monday, March 28 was submission. Dee Dee asked me how I felt she did in the area of submission and I told her I thought she did great. She agreed but said that the one area she felt she didn't do very well in was the idea of me being a chaplain. I said "Wow, I haven't thought about that in months" to which she quickly replied under her breath "Take it back. Take it back. Take it back."

That week, our Sunday School teacher and I got together for lunch. We had been trying to do so for about a month and a half but just never could hook up. One of the things we talked about was my conversation with Dee Dee about submission and the chaplaincy. I'm not sure why I evern brought it up, but I did. He challenged me to do something about it, to talk to a retired chaplain, or find an active duty chaplain I could talk to just to see what my options were. Well, I emailed a contact for the Chaplain Candidate Program that I found on the internet and got a call back the next day. After talking with him I really felt like God was telling me to pursue it. I know it sounds fast but by Thursday, March 31, I was convinced that God was telling me that this is something I need to do. I might end up not becoming a chaplain for one reason or another, but it's something that I must pursue at this point in my life.

OK, now for the Southern Seminary decision. Like I said, by March 31 I was making plans to go to seminary again (you have to go to seminary to be a chaplain). My human brain said, "OK, I have a good job here at Parkview, so I'll just stay here and commute to New Orleans for seminary." I got home that day and had a flyer in the mail from Southern about their Preview Conference that was coming up in April. I know, coincidence right? Well, let me tell you a little more about that flyer.

• It was postmarked on March 28, the day the idea resurfaced
• It was mailed to the wrong apartment, but made it to my box anyway
• I got it on March 31, the deadline to sign up for the conference was April 1

So we decided that God was telling us we needed to at least look into this school. When we got there we fell in love with it. Through the people we met and the things we heard at the Preview Conference God definitely confirmed that He is calling us to attend there. Oh and when we got to Southern and told the Director of Admissions the story about the flyer he said "And I can add something to that. All the flyers were mailed at the same time, about a month before yours was postmarked."

So there's the whole story. I know it's long and confusing, but that's how it happened.