I got expelled from seminary.
To be accurate, I was gently encouraged to leave.
I didn't do anything wrong; and neither did the seminary.
I had already been teaching for awhile, but there was a splinter in my brain (that sounded a lot like my mother :-) insisting that I should be a pastor.
After a year of study, several theology classes and a mind-numbing sojourn into Koine Greek, I sat down with my advisor. He talked me through a set of interest inventories I had completed. He asked me pointed questions about my heart for different aspects of ministry.
Near the end of our conversation, he said, "Peter—you should not be a pastor. God has made you a teacher. Go and teach well."
I have learned a lot since that conversation in 1991. Mostly I have learned to retroactively appreciate the gracious release from a dream that wasn't really mine. I've learned that I was built to lead through challenging, questioning, explaining and inspiring. Those could have been good pastor-teacher qualities, but I lacked the nurturing, comforting, and caring impulses that make the best pastors minister effectively.
A lot of our students need someone to pull the college splinter from their brain.
A lot of our students need to be told graciously and lovingly that "college is a round hole and you are a beautiful trapezoid. Go be a chef, a designer, a builder, a painter. Harvest lumber, care for children, build a life with your hands and your heart. Let the people who live in their heads thrive at college. You go and live in the world of people and things."
A new report from Harvard University backs me up.
Let's expel students from the falsely universal expectations of college and some high school programs as well.
Let's release them to a different kind of greatness.
Wow this so strongly mirrors the process I went through over a period of time when I started wondering about a 'call'. It was about the same time that I also worked out my Aspie leanings and started to understand things much more.
ReplyDeleteI notice the words "Square Peg there. I do not have Aspburgers, I actually have Cerebral Palsy...but I have always thought of myself as a square peg (attempting to fit into round holes... Which I feel is highly over rated :). I wonder, would you say that those with Aspberger's have very intense levels of emotion, that are very easily "triggered" (if you will?). Secondly, could it be that those with Aspburgers are uncomfortable with physical touch because of the highly intense emotional "warning" or reaction that can come with that?
ReplyDeleteMaybe I have it backwards...I've read that those with Aspberger's do not show emotion, and the "stereo type" usually is that they are without emotion (in their face). What is your take on that?