Once again I find myself quite a ways from those I love and those who love me. And apparently you all wanna know what’s going on with me in this new adventure. And since keeping those that are far away updated with my life is the reason I started this blog low those many years ago, here we go with some scattershot snippets of life in Chicago.
I am living in a one bedroom apartment. It is great in the mornings as my routine and noise don’t disturb anyone and the only thing I have to concentrate on is getting out the door in time for class or chapel.
Chapel is Mondays and Thursdays which are the days that I have 1pm classes. So not only do they serve to build community and learning, they server to get me out of the house before noon.
Tuesday and Wednesday I have 8am classes (Thursday I also have a 3pm class and a 6:30pm class).
So far classes are good. Tons of reading, which isn’t my strength, but it needs to get done, so it does.
Coming home in the evenings is harder, as there isn’t forced community going on. As much as living in community at ARCG was a struggle at times, there was nothing better than coming home to a movie or a game of Quelf already in progress. So I have to go and find community. I have to ask to hang out, I have to be vulnerable, I have to go and seek out the awesome people that I am surrounded by. (prayer request number one=that I would be intentional about seeking out community)
Thursdays are my longest day. After classes end at 9pm, there is a Vespers service. For those of you who went to Simpson think Worship Jam. For those of you who didn’t think an hour of worship through music with undergrad and seminary students alike.
Last Thursday was particularly impactful.
That afternoon I sat in class and took notes on the difference doctrines of Christ. We learned of the 3rd-5th century debates where various Church Fathers veered to far left or right when defining either the humanity or the divinity of Christ. Doctrinal disagreements leading to arguments, papers written, councils called, bar songs being written, excommunication of the other side enacted by both parties, and official positions being taken.
It is easy to sit and laugh at the early church (forgetting we do much the same today) for their fighting, for their obvious faults in logic and Biblical understanding, and forget that they were defining and shaping the faith that we have today. That night at Vespers, we sang about Christ, who He is and His work in our lives. It was wonderful to worship my God in spirit and in truth, to worship in the classroom and in the chapel. To know that sound theology lies behind the lyrics and that the lyrics help to teach and define the theology.
That morning I had a conversation with a close friend about how God was digging into my life to redefine my identity, and the specific areas where I was still holding on to it. That evening we also sang songs about God’s goodness. Songs about God’s unfailing love. (prayer request number 2, that I will let go and let God. That my identity will be found solely in him.)
I have found a tiny (by CA standards) Presbyterian Church less than a mile north of campus. It is a congregation of two hundred that is predominately Japanese. They need help in their Children’s Ministry department. If all continues to go forward I will be taking a (paying no less) internship with them starting in January. (request number three, that this internship will meet my financial needs so that I can continue to stay at North Park.)
Found a couple of grocery stores within walking distance. One is largely Middle Eastern and the other is multi-cultural. The down side is that both charge way too much for cereal.
So the long and the short of it all is my greatest physical need is that I can’t find cheap cereal, my greatest academic woe is that reading is hard, and my great spiritual struggle is fighting God as he wants to remake me so that I trust Him more and rely not on the temporal things of this world.
I suppose life isn’t too bad. (I’ll write again after it snows.)
Serving Him alongside all of you, just from further away,
--Jesse Letourneau
