Upon further reflection on my seminary days, I realized there was one part of my education that really stuck with me - and it was way outside of any in-class lectures.
I spent one January term completing a practicum at a nearby mental hospital, shadowing the resident chaplain.
It was heartbreaking and fascinating.
I met people who were nearly catatonic and others who couldn't sit still. I met "Jesus" and I beat him at ping pong. I was suspected of being an alien but then exonerated when my accuser decided my eyes "weren't purple enough". And imaginary voices commanded one patient, "Listen to Steve!" - and I was glad for the support.
I saw patients who found the right medication to bring a complete 180, allowing them to walk out the door, and other patients who had tried everything for a decade with no change, leaving them permanent residents.
Those four weeks widened my life experience in dramatic ways - and brought some spiritual wrestling.
I, like a lot of Christians, had lived a fairly sheltered life up to that point. Was my God big enough to coexist with realities on the fringe?
A lot of people spend their entire life on the fringe, after all. And if God can't live and work there, how real can He be?
Is Jesus capable of meeting people there on the fringe?
And tonight I am left wondering what I could be doing to lead the people of my church outside their comfort zones - into the places where real learning takes place.
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