Writing that Makes Us Feel Hope for the Future

We are in the 3rd week of seminary classes, and it's been 4 weeks of technology hell at work.  For years, I assumed that the technology set up at work was the most solid and secure, so it's been strange to find myself in the new condo where the internet connection is so solid.  I'm grateful and realizing I'm lucky.  I'm tired of lugging my laptop everywhere, while also realizing that I'm lucky to have one to lug, and I know that if anything happens to it, I can replace it fairly easily.  It has not always been this way for me, and I do understand how I am speaking from a place of privilege.  

I don't want to rant about work, at least not today.  I spend much of every work day these days letting others rant to me about these tech issues I can't solve.

Today I want to talk about a comment that my professor made in one of my seminary classes last night.  We were wrapping up the Zoom session, and the professor was talking about the assignments we've turned in, and her grading process.  She said she'd been feeling down lately, but then she started reading our assignments, and she felt so inspired and so hopeful about the future of the church.

For those of you who have lost track of the progress of my life, a quick digression.  I'm in my first semester of classes at Wesley Theological Seminary, where I'm working towards an MDiv degree, which is the degree required by my Lutheran denomination (ELCA) to be a pastor.  Almost every student is headed towards some sort of career in the Church, which I'm using as shorthand for Protestant Christian organized/institutional religion space.

Back to my seminary professor, who is feeling hopeful about the future of that institution because she's reading our writing.  I watched her tell us this and watched her get a bit choked up as she told us how much we had made her feel better.

I confess that I did go back to the course shell to scroll through our Discussion posts.  I had a different, though related, response--I feel relief, like I have found my people.  Last night, as our professor was instructing us about how she wanted us to approach the Bible, I felt a similar relief.  She mentioned that she'd had students in the past who approach the Bible as inerrant, unchanging and dictated from God, and she always advises those students to find a different seminary, because Wesley is not that seminary.  Again, I felt relief, because I would not do well if Wesley was that kind of seminary.

When I looked at the various specialty tracks that Wesley offers, tracks like my chosen one of Theology and the Arts and but also Public Theology, Urban Ministry, and the African American church, I couldn't imagine that Wesley would be a conservative place, and so far, the theology I've found has matched what I could see myself proclaiming.

I think about what my professor told us last night, and I, too, feel hope for the future.  And I also want to remember this moment as one of the better pieces of writing feedback that I've gotten so far--if I can write anything that makes people feel hope, that's a piece of writing that has fulfilled one of my writing goals.