"He found Jesus"

This week, while taking my daily stroll on the treadmill at the "Y", I happened across a television program (the idea of having a television built into the treadmill was a good one) called "WWII in HD" on the History channel. I enjoy reading, researching and watching documentaries and movies about WWII and this one intrigued me. I really enjoy hearing the stories told by people that were there and can remember the details with great accuracy. This particular episode contained a story about Captain Charles Scheffel, who was wounded during a campaign to take a town along the border in Germany.
Now, I can get choked up when someone tells a heartfelt story and this just happened to be one was one of those stories. Scheffel's company was traveling along with an armored division when they began to receive enemy shell fire from the Germans. While trying to radio for help, a shell exploded close by, knocking him to the ground. Scheffel recalled hearing a loud bang and then silence. He could neither hear nor see anything; he thought he was dead. He soon regained his senses and realized that he was still alive, but yet was able to see that the men that had been standing by him just moments earlier, now lay dead on the ground beside him. Bleeding, in pain, and not being able to bend his arm, Scheffel knew that if he didn't get help, and soon, he too would die. He wanted to live.
Just ahead of him was a ditch. Scheffel knew that if he could pull himself into that ditch and travel along he would eventually run into some of the other men in his company. In great pain and with much difficulty using his good arm, he managed to pull himself into the ditch and struggled to pull himself along. It didn't take long for him to find someone. The first person he came upon just happened to be a medic. When Scheffel asked what his name was, the medic replied "Jesus" (pronounced "hay-soos" in this case, but Jesus nonetheless). He found Jesus.
Sometimes we can find ourselves waged in a war of all sorts. we can feel like our plans have exploded and crumbled around us until we just can't take it any more, yet we still have a sliver of desire to keep going, a desire to live. All we have to do is humble ourselves and seek our "medic". All we have to do is find Jesus. And fortunately for us, we don't have to look very far.

The Bittersweet End.

This is my last semester as a bible college student, and it has been pretty bittersweet. I have enjoyed the last few years, but the last two semesters have proven to be the most difficult. Don't get me wrong. The workload has been pretty light; I mean I didn't have any classes this semester, and only a couple last semester, so it has been for the most part uneventful. Therein lies the rub. Last semester I had a night class and was there only once a week, and this semester, well as I mentioned earlier, I haven't even had to go at all. The problem is that I miss the interaction, especially with other like minded Christians, young and old alike. I miss the camaraderie and friendship between fellow students. I long for discussing deep theological concepts and debating dogmatic preferences. These are things that serve as a reminder that I'm on the track that I'm supposed to be on. It is easy, when you remove yourself from that environment, to become engrossed in the day to day routine that you gave up to enter into the pastoral field, caught in a period of waiting; between graduation and gainful employment in your field of choice. And so there I am, getting up, going to work, coming home, playing daddy, playing hubby, going to bed, and doing all over again the next day: a dangerous predicament to say the least. How easy it would be to simply keep my current job and continue on for the next several years, never giving another thought to the ministry, but that's not what I was called to do.
It has been a long and difficult journey, full of ups and downs, trials and triumphs, but I am confident that as long as I seek to do God's will for my life, I'll be alright. May will be here before you know it and then... well, who knows?