On the way to field ed this morning, I heard an advertisement for New York Seminary (I know nothing about the school, but found the ad alittle funny). They are seeking for 12 students who feel called by God to apply and come study for MDiv, MAs and Doctorate of Ministry’s. They emphasized the 12ness because of the 12 disciples.

Now I am used to, and can understand the perspective of small, committed, and dedicated students. But they closed the commercial with “Our classes are nights and weekends, so we can work around your schedule.”

This seemed to suddenly diminish the importance of being Called By God. Normally, it seems that God’s call is not that convenient (See Isaiah, Amos, Jeremiah, Moses, Jonah, Jospeh, and others). And if you are looking for such a small amount of students who feel called, you would hope that they would being willing to alter their schedules for such an important endeavor.

It makes me wonder how often we try to squeeze God and his call into our predetermined schedules. It is weird for me, because since high school, I have always wanted to come to Princeton Seminary, so the idea of “giving up” or changing my schedule has not really had to occur…yet…

But how open are we to change, to sudden alteration, to challenges, to new schedules, and to a different life trajectory than what we have expected?

And as I went to church today, the sermon was a musical by the children. The video cameras were rolling, the flashes were flying and as I overheard one mother say, “I hope this is only supposed to be an hour show.” Hmmm…I think we forgot to mention that this was still a worship service (it had prayers, hymns, and scripture reading). And I also think we were all wondering how long this would be, I know I kept looking at my watch. But it was within the hour limit, and so we all left happy and relieved that our encounter with God was still limited to an hour on Sunday.