Making My Brain Sweat

Back when Andrew was at Hugh Mercer Elementary School in Fredericksburg, he had a teacher who said, “Make your brain sweat!” She meant for her students to work hard at thinking, imagining, innovating, and more. Well, this week our professor, Lew Parks, is definitely making our brains sweat.

For most of us, it is the final class of our doctor of ministry program. The next step is the project each of us will do to try and make a difference for the church. Then we have our project paper (re: dissertation) to write, re-write, and write yet again until it is deemed acceptable. After that, we get to make the walk to receive our degrees.

Back to that bit about making the brain sweat. In preparation for our project and the paper, we are in the Project Class, writing, re-writing, and writing yet again the various parts of what will be the proposal. We share our work not only with the prof, but with the whole class as well, with folks weighing in on helping us to refine and strengthen our words. One of the hardest parts has been writing the theological component of our project in forty words! Yes, you read that correctly—40 words. Can you imagine a roomful of preachers trying to get it down to forty words?

That’s what has been making my brain sweat, but it is so helpful to take the “grand” scale of my project and define the theological underpinnings in clear, precise language. I have known that this project is something I have felt strongly about for years, but the clarity is so much better now. So thanks, Lew, for making my brain sweat.

Ephesians 4:1-3

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.