When I was in my last year of seminary my wife and I began trying to have children. This had been our plan from the beginning; to finish school first and then start our families. We wanted the timing to be "perfect" and being as we were eager to have children we started trying to conceive nine months before graduation. The first few months were disappointing, but we were assured by everyone that these things just take some time. Then (as it seemed to us) all of our friends began to announce that they were expecting. It seems that many of the students shared our same game plan. So we were happy for them, but began to be more and more impatient as time went on. We began to resort to desperate thinking, like many people do. Maybe we have done something wrong, maybe God is made at us, maybe we are out of his will. As we passed the "one year" mark we noticed that our hearts had taken on a new and more dangerous characteristic. We were jealous. We would look down on othe...
Reflections on Scripture, Theology, Preaching and The Christian Life