Mufasa

Remember this scene from The Lion King? 

I'm Shenzi in this clip. But replace "Mufasa" with "seminary." Oooo do it again! It makes me shudder (and giggle like a child).

For a long time, the thought of seminary has been creeping into my head. And it scared me. I think one of first times it really freaked me out was when I was in 7th grade. My friends and I were being particularly honest this day and were talking about our real life goals. As opposed to the ones we told everyone else, "I'd love to be a (insert respected profession here, such as lawyer, doctor, pharmacist, teacher)."

We shared things like, "how cool would it be to be an exotic dancer for a while?" and, "do you think I could be a cowgirl?"

Mine was weirder.

I quietly said, "well, I've kind of been thinking that being a pastor would be cool." My friends nodded, smiled, and moved on. Okay, I thought, probably not a "responsible" profession. 

I kept pushing this feeling to the back of my mind. I wanted to actually make money and I was told I was "smart enough" do just about anything short of being a physicist. So I pursued something more normal, and something that I did well. Something that would make more money.

A few months after I graduated college, people started saying these weird things to me:

"Have you ever thought of going to seminary?"
"What about ministry? That seems to fit you."
"Youth ministry is where you should really look."
"You'd be a great preacher. You should go to seminary."

Ew. I shuddered. That word again. Yuck. Seminary? Four more years of school? Really? Seminary?

Yes. Seminary.