application fun!

i'm sending off my richmond app this afternoon. after i put it all in the envelope and say a little prayer it will be out of my hands. i'm putting one of my essays on the blog. i know it's not spectacular, but it's something :O) i'll post a real post either tonight or tomorrow. i'm soooo happy to have this all done! wahooooooo

When you ask someone to talk about a book that has had a profound impact on their faith for a seminary essay, the first answer is, I think, rather obvious. The Bible has been translated into hundreds of languages; it is available in bookstores, grocery stores, Wal-Marts and even in American hotel room nightstands. It is probably the most widely available book in the world. It is also the foundation of my faith, the book that I was read to as a child and have learned to study as an adult. It would be easy, I think, to talk about the bible, but today, for this essay I’m going to cast my net a little wider. I was an English minor at college and have always had a great interest in reading, from my first color picture adorned bible, to non fiction exposé’s, to fictional masterpieces, to incredibly meaningful children's literature. I'm sure I could come up with an influential book for every category, but I'm going to focus on the most recent, most influential book that I have read; Marcus Borg's Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time. This book has had such a great influence on me because it has allowed me to think of Jesus in a new light. My first memories of Jesus were the stories and pictures we saw in Sunday school; a blonde haired, blue eyed Jesus that taught us how to love and serve each other. I held on that picture until high school, using Jesus as a marker of how to treat others, a reminder of how service should be a part of my life. In high school, and probably even before, there was the WWJD fad. Everyone was wearing those letters on their t-shirts and backpacks and wristbands. The letters were a status symbol, not a moral compass. I think this fad really turned me off to finding out more about Jesus, in a way up I was always a little scared of loving Jesus too much. I was conscious of having that self- righteous attitude that came with the t-shirt. In the past year I’ve discovered Borg’s Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, and while I know that it’s not a definitive version of Jesus, it has awakened a desire inside me to learn more about who Jesus really was and the life that he lived beyond the stories in the bible. Before the book I would have described myself as someone who was more in touch with God, the idea of God, as overwhelming as it may seem, was something I was more comfortable talking about than Jesus. The book has helped reaffirm how important it is to not just live my life as Jesus taught, but to be able to talk about that life and to talk about Jesus. Through discussions about Borg’s work I have been able to engage in lively discussions with the college aged fellowship group I help lead, we have all talked about Jesus as a revolutionary, our version of Jesus from childhood, Jesus and his wisdom. This book has introduced me to Jesus in a way that I had not met him before, and it has also allowed me to introduce Jesus to others in a new way.