learning curve

I recently had a conversation with Seth while at the beach the other day about learning and Covenant and whether we thought we would keep up this three ringed circus called community development after graduating in the spring. I was complaining, as usual, about the school and not feeling ready for this internship and other such criticisms with which I could placate my overloaded mind. Right in the middle of my diatribe on “four years of this nonsense and still not feeling up to snuff in the field” when Seth remarked on something that I realized was rather obvious. He interjected that our undergrad degrees aren’t exactly supposed to teach us everything we would need to know for our careers. He said that he thought one of Covenants philosophies was to inspire students to want to learn. I thought about this and felt like someone had just whispered in my ear that the Golden Gate Bridge was in San Fransisco after trying to say it was somewhere in east Asia. Aside from generally trying to grind into us a few solid ideas that might stick with us for ten to twenty years, the rest of it really won’t stick. It isn’t something that I haven’t thought of before, but in the middle of my self pitty, it was pointed out to me that this internship was actually supposed to teach me how to do research and community development. Yes the professors might chuckle a little when they get our emails crying for help saying that we don’t know how to do it all, but thats the point isn’t it? (surely you guys aren’t that brutal? wait, who am i kidding…)

So, in an effort to dance off the stage after falling in my opening act, allow me to say this. I am glad that I am in the Dominican Republic. I am glad that I am being faced with new challenges and trials. I am happy to be put in a place where I am extremely uncomfortable. Because I know that this time is not only an opportunity to really learn what community development is all about, but it is also a time to continue to be shaped by the great Sculptor, leaving the shavings of what we were on the floor and leaving only that which He wants us to be, just so, in the image of His Son. (thanks Seth, Smita, Mom and thanks to the man who introduced me to this analogy)