1 + 3 = 5
Today makes it official and final. I'm a graduate.
After 5 years of Bible College (I'll pause for a moment to let many of you either make audible gasps of surprise, or arc your eyebrows in curiosity), I have earned a degree of Bachelor of Religious Education. I can't exactly say that my feelings right now, while naturally a mixture of relief and euphoria, are along the lines of, "Yay, I'm done!" I don't even feel like going, "On with the rest of my life now!"
My thoughts right now on graduating?
About bloody time.
I originally attended Emmanuel Bible College for a 1-year program. I graduated from that (which makes me technically a double graduate), and then decided to further pursue the 3-year B.R.E. degree. However, life being what it is, I was required to stretch out my courses over a few extra years. So instead of finishing my B.R.E. in three years (with my 1-year certificate counting as one of those years), it has taken a respective 5 years to come to completion.
While I can gripe about the time I took to get this all done, I cannot complain about what I'm taking away with me now. I've gained wisdom & insight, found illumination, faced my demons in the dark (and most importantly: won), and stumbled across a number of invaluable friends I do not intend to lose track of for the remainder of my life. Most of all, I've learned that for all the knowledge I have, or even think that I have, I've barely scratched the surface.
It's a humbling thing when you come face to face with your own arrogance and ignorance, and realise how lacking you truly are. I can only hope I do not take such encounters for granted, as they have both bolstered my confidence and cut my rampaging ego down quite a few notches. Humility is always an honourable thing. For that matter, so is clean underwear.
I want to spend the rest of my life learning. Not necessarily theology alone, but of all things. I can learn from the books I read. I can learn from the courses I take, and the issues I study. I can learn from my humility. I can learn from my mistakes. I can learn from my ambitions and dreams. I can learn from my disappointments. I can learn from my friends. I can learn from God. And best of all, I can take all of these and strive to become a wholly better person.
So if you need me, I'll be upstairs listening to The Cure's
"Friday I'm In Love", and drinking a Malibu Rum & Coke, and thinking that while I've just closed an important chapter in the story that is my life, there's still a lot that has yet to be written. In which case, I had better get up off my ass and start writing it.
Ja.
Today's Lesson: "Gold from Egypt is still gold." --St. Augustine. (which is to say, truth is truth, no matter where you find it, even if it's come from the most unlikely, strangest, seemingly contrary or darkest of places)
posted by Phillip at 6:47 PM
