Why the Internship is basically paid Sabbath (so far)

Dear Friends and Family,

So I have been here in Hamilton for exactly two weeks now, and things are finally beginning to get moving. I sit in on my first student leadership meeting tomorrow and will begin leading a small group with one of them the following week. So things are exciting, and in a few months my blog will probably be much different, but right now, let me describe the ways in which I have been drinking from God's Goodness.

1. I had this impression that Hamilton was basically Mordor (that description isn't mine, it came from a friend of fellow intern Christine's, although it captures my sentiments exactly). Initially I felt a little bummed out being sent to Hamilton but now I think that I am exactly where I should be, which feels good, of course. But before I talk about that, let me say that Hamilton, especially the community of Westdale, is a very pretty place. The McMaster campus is beautiful, with a lot of greenery, and it borders the Cootes Paradise Marsh, an internationally acclaimed wetland owned by the Royal Botanical Gardens. There are a number of hiking trails that lead out from campus, all a scant fifteen minute walk away from our house. I have spent much time on them, and I have seen an abundance of wildlife, including a special moment with a mother deer and two fawns barely 5 metres away, swans, pelicans, an osprey, mallards, cormorants, great blue herons, night herons, egrets, a pair of red-tailed hawks, garter snakes, canada geese, and the woods are simply alive with chipmunks, squirrels, cardinals, blue jays and chickadees. For those of you who know how much I love animals and nature, you will see that this is basically paradise (okay apart from the dogs not on a leash that tear through the woods every now and then). When I can technically be "working" by spending time on "campus" in this way, who needs free time? My goal is to convert my students into nature junkies by the spring, so that I can spend seven days a week on the trails with my students while we talk about what God was thinking when He created the platypus.
   
2. Speaking of working, over the past week I have spent maybe over 12 hours playing Ultimate frisbee, soccer and squash, not to mention the maybe 10 hours I have spent playing board games with students and housemates for "bonding" purposes. I have already found a student (in VCF! LOL) that loves squash and badminton (I am going to mentor him, like, every day), which allows me to expense my athletic centre membership and save my stipend for things like lobster dinners (just kidding). By the end of this year I will probably be in the best shape of my life, ha!
3. Speaking of dinners, I have four housemates who are obsessed with food and love to cook (extra LOL!) hence I often feel bad for just simply chowing down on what they make, but it really makes life so much easier, as I just have to make sure I do my share of dishes, which I am used to doing anyway. So basically I get a personal Garden of Eden in my backyard, play my favourite games and sports, am fed like a king, and get paid for it.
4. As an intern team, we do things like go through spiritual books and do manuscript study. I would read those books anyway and if I could get a full time job doing cityscript I would probably do it, so manuscript isn't really "work". It just energizes me. The staff team and the small groups are going to be studying the Gospel of John, which to me is like getting to watch Lord of the Rings over and over again until I finally get tired of it (i.e. never). I have also studied John religiously (pun intended) over the last two years, so I don't think I'm being boastful or overconfident when I say I feel just a little bit prepared for co-leading this Bible study, although Jesus says I should still be careful.
   
5. I share a basement with fellow intern Justin, and we have a shared working space that's adjacent to the TV room (and if we have students over, watching TV with them WOULD be work, so it's an appropriate arrangement, no?), with two small bedrooms that we only use for sleeping. So it's basically a rehash of my living arrangements with David and Graham, except Justin doesn't have to listen to me snore all night long and we don't have to worry about things like "problem sets" and "homework".
   
6. Inter-Varsity does a good job of taking care of not only the basic material needs of its staff, but also their spiritual and emotional needs as well, so they provide us with great resources like mentors, spiritual directors, excellent bible teachers, close community and satellite TV. I'm not quite sure what their reasoning was behind that last one, but I like to think it was so that my housemates could watch Food Network at anytime and find new creative ways to feed me like a king while I watch US Open tennis on three different channels.
7. Oh, and on the seventh day Samuel, er, no wait,...God rested from all the "work" he had been doing. (We interns have a scheduled Sabbath every week, LOL!)

So that was my tongue-in-cheek description of how God has been good to me. I have the added advantage of all my housemates being wonderful, generous and forgiving people. The problem is, of course, that I am very well aware that this is just the honeymoon phase, and if Inter-Varsity's teaching is to be trusted (and I believe it is, that's why I'm doing this whole shabam) then things should be going downhill pretty quickly from here. I will use the next post to relate some of the personal challenges and questions I now face, lest you think my work here is all fun and games.

That said, I do believe that God is teaching me a great (and good!) lesson in all of this. Or rather reinforcing a lesson he tried to teach me many years ago. It was in my second year, and I had been considering whether or not I should say yes to the invitation to be on exec the following year. I was sitting in Queen's Park contemplating and asking God to confirm my sneaking suspicion that he wanted me to say yes. When I asked, all I heard was "I desire good things for you Samuel." I promptly responded with a "What the heck was that? Did you even hear my question?" But all I received was silence...you will discover that I like riddles, and Jesus likes riddles, and Jesus likes messing with my life through riddles (in a good way of course). He also has this habit of telling me things like two or three years in advance, as if He actually expects me to remember stuff He told me in prayer, like, two years ago (seriously, Lord, what is up with that?). I don't really know why Jesus does this to me while many of my other friends gets instructions from the Spirit in the moment (much more helpful in everyday life) but it has trained me to be very attentive to what goes on around me and to concentrate really hard on remembering what He says, which I guess is partly the point.

This is important because I feel like I am seeing the more obvious signs of fulfillment of those words he said to me nearly four years ago. Four! Needless to say, I said yes to being on exec back then, and look at where I am at now (re: above). And of course I have realized over these four years that God's response WAS INDEED an answer to my question, I just hadn't figured it out then.

And the thing that makes this whole thing even more creepy (in a good way) is that during our intern training Al Anderson was saying to us interns how whatever happens between now and the end of this adventure that we would all experience just how GOOD it all was at the end of the year. We even did manuscript studies on Genesis and Revelation to illustrate this point, and as if it wasn't already drilled into our heads they took us to Stanley Park and let us run amok and "soak in God's goodness" (seriously, Al's words, almost word for word) for an entire afternoon. (Because Inter-Varsity, like Jesus, doesn't like spelling things out but acting out parables. Not that I'm complaining, Stanley Park was beautiful.)

It has been a lesson designed to show me how God's character is the most important thing to grasp, understand and have in my life. Life mission is about knowing Jesus and through knowing Jesus becoming more like Jesus. It has also opened my eyes to how God has changed me. Many people would find the intern program hard work, and it is, but God has also nurtured in me a desire and a thirst and a delight for the things that He loves to do, and that of course makes it easier and more enjoyable. I now realize mission and discipleship is less about being transformed so that we can do more of God's work more effectively, but about having our outlook and desires in life transformed so that we can share God's delight in His work, which we should already be doing out of obedience.

This changes my whole outlook on this year, and it is an outlook full of grace, truth and life. God has given me much of my favourite things, much like a parent gives a child toys even though toys are not what's fundamental in life; but at the same time, moulded my disposition to want the things He wants in the students I am going to be with, all while doing the things I love to do and in a place that gives me life. It's kind of wild, kind of like grace upon grace already given.*

*Note: If you didn't get my subtle reference, then turn to the Gospel of John -- my spiritual mind has been, like, warped by that piece of Scripture (again, in a good way) -- or better yet, just go to Urbana :P (Because Samuel likes spelling things out, preferably with tongue in cheek)

I hope you enjoyed that post. As what I have written just gives me much more reason to thank all those who have supported me, my next post will include some updates on my more serious assignments and the spiritual dimensions of my work, as well as some of the challenges I have faced and will face, and some prayer requests.

Thank you everyone, you are all a real blessing. May the life of Jesus be fully made in your lives and you greatly experience God's goodness and abundance as I have. Amen.