Thursday, October 23, 2008

Gifts and Graces

It is reading/midterm/assessment week at CTS. I only had one midterm, which I took yesterday morning. But, my main event was Monday morning at 8am - my MCA. MCA's are Mid-Course Assessments to evaluate one's progress at CTS and to become a degree candidate. There are three faculty members & two students on an MCA team & mine were wonderful people. For me, this was more of a final assessment, since I am a senior this year & MCA's are normally held during the middler year. But, since I was away on internship last year, I had mine this fall. It was a good process- very thoughtful questions from the team & some rather sage advice about how to make use of these last seven months of seminary.

One thing that keeps coming up for me this week is that I need to accept my gifts & graces. The MCA team mentioned it, my preaching professor said it later that day, & it was brought up at my internship site on Tuesday. I guess God is trying to tell me something! But, by the third time I heard it, I was in tears. I know this is something I need to work on, but I don't know how to go about it. It all stems from the fact that I tend to be quiet. That is who I am. I listen more than I speak. Apparently, this has become an issue. People want me to accept my gifts & graces, and then share them with the world. Lovely thought, but how does one do that exactly?

I'm left rather perplexed by the whole situation.

2 comments:

Mark Baker-Wright said...

The idea of an MCA is an interesting one. We don't really have anything like it at Fuller, and such would probably be useful (although I'm not sure how we'd implement such a thing, at least in part due to our rather large student body).

I'm not sure I'm seeing the connection between the need to "accept (your) gifts & graces" and your being quiet. Certainly, listening is itself a "gift" and a "grace." One that I imagine your professors think that people in church ministry should have.

Whatever is meant by the concern, I hope that whatever is needed is made clear to you, and that by God's grace you'll be able to do so.

Peace be with you.

Erin said...

The connection is that my professors and others want me to share my gifts & graces, which they feel can happen if I talk more in class.