As I headed to work on Monday morning, I couldn't help but marvel at the variety of things I had experienced over the course of only a weekend - from kayaking in a beautiful lake and hiking in the mountains to serving meals to homeless men and women in the inner city to standing on the White House lawn to watch the arrival of the president of Ghana.

This season 40 years ago changed my life. The memories remain strong, the fork in the road of my life vivid. I count it the end of my childhood, in many ways. It was August 1968 and I was 10 years old. The summer had already had some major highlights. I had cut my very long hair into the latest style, a pixie cut. Once snipped, I felt so naked. No more curtain of hair covering my back, no more protection.

Before that, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. in April and then Bobby Kennedy in June, had already awakened me from my childhood slumber. I had begun to pay greater attention to the wider world, a dawning awareness now that my life, so secure, so blessed, was not all the life there was.

Yoga and Systematics. Systematics and Yoga. That’s what I answered last year when anyone asked me what I was taking. Naturally, only one of these was offered at Wesley; I took yoga at Tranquil Space in Bethesda. By mentioning them both in the same breath, I was trying to get myself to take one as seriously as the other. 

 This September has brought the Wesley community back together again. Voices fill the hallways as returning students catch up on summer activities and new students get to know each other. Office doors again stand open as faculty prepare for classes and mentor students. Stories of international mission trips, intercultural immersions, church internships, and summer classes are swapped. The community has reunited. Yet even as we start the new year, we recognize that another phase of life has passed.

I grew up in the Congregational tradition, so I didn't know much of the Wesley Bros. apart from a few hymns. It wasn't until seminary that I began to learn of their prominent place in American religious history. And I remember appreciating John Wesley's energy to ride around the frontier on horseback and preach the gospel. I have a little sense of how he feels this summer, as I'm in the midst of a 32-city book tour.

This spring I took a class – “Becoming Church” – at the Church of the Saviour’s Servant Leadership School. We talked about some radical basics of authentic church. The class reminded me of the Covenant Discipleship model from my first year (2000-01) as an MTS student at Wesley. I was not terribly enthused about this requirement. Although it was a nice way to learn about others’ approaches to prayer and devotion, I didn’t think much about how such groups – with their openness, intentionality, and accountability – could deeply shape spirituality and community. 

Buenos Dios! My trip to teach in the Yucatan was an amazing experience! The Theological Seminary of the Yucatan is a mission project of the South Korean Methodist Church and supported by Wesley Theological Seminary. 

I have officially survived my first year at seminary. It is almost unreal now, nearly ten months removed from the start of my fall courses, when I remember the fears and anxieties I had during my first week. Reading through my written journal dated the evening before Orientation Day 2007, I was struck by my peaceful countenance in these words: “Starting tomorrow, things will never be the same. But I know this is where God has called me, and I rest on that promise.”