Ministry?

Well, I’m coming to you all from an altitude of 36,000 feet somewhere between Atlanta, Georgia, and San Francisco. It looks like Texas outside, but I can’t tell. I can’t really sleep, because I’m right behind the left engine on this Boeing 737. So I thought I’d blog. We’ll not really blog, more like word process, and then put it on the blog later. But, who cares. Anyway, something that’s been on my mind lately is what I’m supposed to do with my life. Many of you reading this are probably in the same situation. The interesting part about it is that from about the age of about 12, I thought I wanted to be an engineer (scary but true). I think, back then it was mainly because my Dad was an engineer, and I really liked cars, and planes, and boats: basically anything that could move. By junior year of high school, I was certain that Engineering was my calling, I applied to the schools and all that, but towards the end of the year, everything sorta changed. I kept hearing from other people that I should be a pastor, or a youth pastor. People at church, at school, even my 91 year old great-grandmother says I’ll be a pastor one day. It happens randomly, and the cool thing is that I heard it from a bunch of different people. The interesting thing was that whenever someone suggested that I should go into ministry, almost immediately, or with in a few days, another person would affirm it. It was strange. After that the idea would sort of go away for a while, and then reappear. The most recent of these reappearings happened two weeks ago at the awesome Pastor Bob dinner. After the meal, I was sitting at the table and Pastor Bob, sitting across from me says, out of the blue, “Erik, Kelly and I think that you should be a Pastor, not even a Youth Pastor, just go straight into seminary after college”. Immediately after, Ben, Mel, Bob, Shelley, and a couple other people threw in a, “Yea!” or a “You’d be great”. It was cool, and a God thing, but unbelievably random. It followed the usual pattern. One person says it, completely out of the blue, and immediately, about half a dozen others affirm it. At the time, I really didn’t know what to say, so I just gave a pondering “Hummm”. But it did rock the boat. It says in the Bible somewhere (anybody know?) that people called into ministry should be affirmed by a group of believers. And it appears that this is happening. But, there are a few things I worry about, if I were to go into ministry. From what I see, being a minister is one of the toughest jobs ever. Then again, ministry isn’t really a job, is not even a career, it’s a calling, a lifestyle. Seminary looks rough too. Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Philosophy, writing huge papers. Ehh! That doesn’t interest me too much. However, there does seem to be a middle road. I know a few pastors that are engineers. Right now, I think I’ll go for the engineering degree, then, after four years the call may be clearer. Would doing this be running from my true calling? I know that people who are called into ministry know their call, like for sure. But I don’t. Hummm. So, if anyone out there has any idea what I should do with my life, leave a comment, and back it up with something too. I guess for now all I can do is pray about it and listen, and read, and let God take care of it. But for now, the battery on this thing is dying, so I’ll catch you all later.