Seasons Of The Soul
December 8, 2010 by Steve Pogue
Filed under Bible study, Prayer, Recent MMMs
John Marson Dunaway
French & Interdisciplinary Studies
Mercer University
[Dec 19, 2010] –
During the long last weeks of fall semester, I sometimes get a bit bogged down by all the papers to be graded and committee work to be completed … not to mention the rejection notices one often receives from submissions of scholarly work or grant applications.
Sometimes my devotional life too gets similarly caught in the dryness of routine and I’m not sure where to turn for inspiration. Should I start rereading the Psalms? Get a new devotional book? Change my habits of prayer?
Our Redemption Draws Nigh
We are told in Scripture to lift up our heads, to look up, for our redemption is drawing nigh. That is certainly the heart of the Advent message. One of the things about Advent and Christmas that I love the most is that it renews my expectancy about God’s active, albeit hidden participation in my own life and in events all around me.
I’m grateful for the change of seasons that brings me cozy warmth or refreshing coolness, the rebirth of nature in spring, the blazing color of fall, and even the special beauty of the gray bare woods in winter. How much more grateful I am for the “seasons of the soul,” as Christian poet Allen Tate called them: that the dry, arid days of humdrum routine are always followed by the promise of renewal (“Christ in you, the hope of glory”). It’s a reflection of God’s promise of eternal glory with Him that Advent comes in “the bleak midwinter.”
He Is Still At Work
When we’re burdened with the busy-work of grading, committee work, or research, we can remind ourselves that the Holy Spirit is still at work in every aspect of our lives, even in these circumstances of the teaching life. “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
Lift up your heads, o ye academic gates, that the King of Glory may come in!
Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel!
(c) 2010 John Marson Dunaway Photo copyright flickr user lambertwm
John Marson Dunaway
Professor, French & Interdisciplinary Studies
Mercer University
During the long last weeks of fall semester, I sometimes get a bit bogged down by all the papers to be graded and committee work to be completed … not to mention the rejection notices one often receives from submissions of scholarly work or grant applications.
Sometimes my devotional life too gets similarly caught in the dryness of routine and I’m not sure where to turn for inspiration. Should I start rereading the Psalms? Get a new devotional book? Change my habits of prayer?
We are told in Scripture to lift up our heads, to look up, for our redemption is drawing nigh. That is certainly the heart of the Advent message. One of the things about Advent and Christmas that I love the most is that it renews my expectancy about God’s active, hidden participation in my own life and in events all around me.
I’m grateful for the change of seasons that brings me cozy warmth or refreshing coolness, the rebirth of nature in spring, the blazing color of fall, and even the special beauty of the gray bare woods in winter. How much more grateful am I for the “seasons of the soul,” as Christian poet Allen Tate called them: that the dry, arid days of humdrum routine are always followed by the promise of renewal (“Christ in you, the hope of glory”). It’s a reflection of God’s promise of eternal glory with Him that Advent comes in “the bleak midwinter.”
When we’re burdened with the busy-work of grading, committee work, or research, we can remind ourselves that the Holy Spirit is still at work in every aspect of our lives, even in these circumstances of the teaching life. “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
Lift up your heads, o ye academic gates, that the King of Glory may come in!
Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel!
Seat Of The Scornful
November 15, 2010 by Steve Pogue
Filed under Bible study, Caring About Colleagues, Conflict Resolution
John Marson Dunaway,
French and Interdisciplinary Studies,
Mercer University
[Nov. 28, 2010] –
As I recently read the beginning of Through the Psalms with Derek Prince, I was struck with his meditation on Ps 1:1-3, which I had memorized over twenty years ago.
“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth for his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”
Meditating
Those three verses have richly nourished me over the years. At an earlier time I had heard a teaching on the importance of meditating on scripture. If we memorize a passage like this and chew or ruminate on it “day and night”—sort of like a cow chewing cud–, the inimitable power of God’s Word is released in us. It begins to show us truths we didn’t detect from just reading.
I recall an occasion when I was moved to carry out one of the specific applications of this passage. That was during the tumultuous days over two decades ago when our faculty was bitterly upset with what they saw as the administration’s top-down management and profligate spending. The faculty lunch table in the snack bar became an extended gripe session of cynical criticism.
It proved to be one of the most trying times of my life, and I remember realizing I was “sitting in the seat of the scornful.” So I quit having lunch there.
I firmly believe God blessed me in just the way David describes in v. 3: I am now indeed “like a tree planted by the rivers of water.”
Flourishing
My children, their spouses, and my grandchildren are the flourishing leaves that have not withered. And I’ve prospered far beyond what I could have dreamed. A few years after the crisis, God led me and a couple of other Christian colleagues to establish a Faculty/Staff Christian Fellowship on our campus.
The stage of my career since that faculty ministry started has proved to be the most rewarding years of my tenure as a faculty member. Thankfully, after the crisis between faculty and administration blew over, I was able to return to the faculty lunch table and again enjoy the fellowship of my colleagues.