The Ends Justify the Means

Today I went to a Schnucks grocery store that had solar-powered sink faucets, a mezzanine seating area/cooking school, a walk-in wine and cheese cooler with complimentary outerwear, and light sensors in their freezer displays that made pizza rolls seem as refined and elegant as any objet d'art deemed worthy of museum display.  It was intense.  Unfortunately I was sans-camera, otherwise this could have been an equally dramatic blog post.  You'll just have to take my word for it.  (For you St. Louis-ans, it's the Schnucks in Des Peres, by West County Center.  Take a field trip).

I have a new life motto for my grad school years: the ends justify the means.  Negative Machiavellian connotations aside, I think this is a good way to look at grad school as far as individual courses are concerned.  Let's face it: being a CMM in a sea of MDiv's kind of screws you over as far as courses are concerned (for non-seminary folk, CMM = my Christian Education degree program, and MDiv = practically everyone else's degree program and the one required for ordination in the United Methodist church).  Courses that intrigued me when I applied aren't being offered, and most of the courses seem completely irrelevant.  Case and point: over the summer, I intend to take two three-week intensive courses, Greek 1 and Greek 2.  Why?  Because I have to take 2 courses over the summer to finish my degree before my scholarship runs out....and because the scheduling office is all whacked out, that's practically my only option.

I've come to peace with the Greek thing because 1) I'm a language person and 2) It will be a nice change from abstract theology and church history.  For the fall, I'm aiming for the required Old Testament course and Systematic Theology course, and a Children's Ministry course for my required age-level Christian Ed class, along with my internship (which, fingers crossed, will be at that Filipino church I interviewed with a few weeks ago).  Add a January Term course, 3 Spring courses, and 1 leftover summer course, and I will be DONE my degree and OUT of seminary by July of 2012.  That leaves me with just 15 and a half months until I have a masters degree in hand.

And, when I stop and think about things logically, the Masters degree is what matters.  It doesn't matter if the courses aren't the most relevant or interesting things along the way...with this degree I'll easily be able to get a job as a children's pastor or something similar, which will be a decent enough salary to begin paying off student loans, even if it's not what I want to do forever.  To be honest, I've thought long and hard about dropping out, calling the grad school thing quits and finding a job doing something entirely different from ministry.  But, in the end, I can't get a decent salaried job with just a French bachelors degree.  And, as painful as it may be along the way, I'll have a masters next year.

So it seems like I'm in this thing until July 2012.  Eyes on the prize.