During this lovely reading week I got the opportunity to drive up to Libertyville to see my girlfriend conduct her first concert. I must confess it was a really cool thing for me to see partially because I would like to conduct a musical group, really, any group, sometime in my life. I think it would be awesome, despite my poor conducting ability at this time, although I am working on conducting in my car and my room. Sometimes I wonder what it might be like if we had switched places or something like that and I went into Music Ed. instead of Religion in undergrad. Would I still end up here?

As a “pipeliner” –someone who came to seminary straight from college- I guess I won’t know in totality what that would feel like. I have felt pulled to go to seminary since I was in high school and so the whole wrestling with calls thing is still foreign to me. I recently had a conversation with someone much older than I am in our class in which we discussed why we were at seminary. This person told me that they were still struggling to find a reason why they were there. I didn’t understand, I thought that if you’re still struggling this violently that maybe this call still isn’t it. They were insistent, however, that this is where God called them to be. I am still baffled by the confidence in this claim, but it’s not right for me as a classmate or as a friend to question their motives or journey, only to support them joyously as we all experience our various calls.

What’s your call story? Each time I hear that question, my answer changes a little bit. Our call stories, I think, are never quite over.