McDonald’s. Text messages. Amazon Prime. ATMs. Google. The retired Concorde. What do all these things have in common?
They are all spelled the same way: F-A-S-T
In the United States of America, we put a special emphasis on receiving things and accomplishing things as quickly as possible. On the one hand, that’s okay, since our life is a vapor and will soon be gone. On the other hand, we tend to settle for less than the best when everything is done as quickly as possible.
Today, August 22, 2016, the fall semester of classes begins at Faith Baptist Bible College & Theological Seminary. Since 2009, I have been enrolled as a full-time student every semester, always enjoying this first day of classes.
But today, August 22, 2016, I am in Crato, Ceara, Brasil, finishing up an incredible summer of ministry in the Southern Hemisphere. No, I am not missing any classes. No, I will not have any homework to make up. I officially finished my last Faith assignment two weeks ago, and I now refer to FBBC&TS as my alma mater.
In the past, I wasn’t the biggest fan of weddings. As a child I went to weddings with my family and a couple times in my “later years” I had the privilege of playing music for the weddings of close family members or friends. But I never was too enthralled with them. I enjoyed the food though, and if I have enough mental capacity to remember any of the specific weddings I attended, I literally can tell you what food or punch almost every one of them served: Chicken enchiladas, pork roast, Famous Dave’s, grape punch with vanilla ice cream- to name a few.
One of my weaknesses is my tendency to do things slowly.
I like slow. I like deliberate. I like to think about what I’m doing and enjoy the moment.
When I worked at IRBC, I loved my job as the photographer because I was never in a rush to be anywhere after meals. I could sit down and eat for 50 minutes. Dining hall girls were gone after 15 minutes, dishroom guys were gone after 22, and lifeguards departed around the 30-minute mark. I’d eat until I got lonely and then I’d leave. Being given 20 minutes to eat as Contender last year was so painful.
On Sunday morning Pastor Eric preached from Luke 5:1-11. In this Scripture, Jesus preaches to the multitudes from a boat before telling Peter to push out into the deeper water to go fishing.
Having just washed his nets after a fruitless (or should I say, fishless) night of work, Peter replies, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net” (Luke 5:5).
What should I write about next? Are there issues that you are facing or that the church is facing today that need to be addressed? Take 15 seconds to let me know!
