<\/p>\n
My life has been a struggle, trying to survive in a foreign land far away from those I knew as a child and adult.\u00a0This struggle took a different turn, had a different meaning after I accepted my call to attend PTS. Initially I felt like I was lost in the wilderness, a sojourner in a foreign land. Nothing made sense to me.\u00a0Matthew 7:7 was my anchor, knowing that God would comfort me and speak to me. Indeed God did; PTS has been my home for the last four years\u00a0\u00a0This was not exactly what I was hoping for when I prayed to God but God told me to run the race with perseverance.<\/p>\n
The first few years of my seminary life, I felt that I was in the wilderness.\u00a0 Prayers, petitions and lamentations were my expressions to the Lord, \u201cOut of the depths I cry to you, O Lord\u201d.\u00a0As I sought for God\u2019s mercy, God taught me a lesson of humility.\u00a0 I learned to fully surrender to the Lord.\u00a0I accepted to be the potter’s clay.\u00a0He is the Creator and Sovereign God. My life and my future are in his hands.\u00a0I trust and rely on Him in ALL things.\u00a0After surrendering to the Lord, my life became more meaningful to me. I began to hear God\u2019s voice more clearly through my study.\u00a0The challenges I once saw as obstacles became opportunities for me to learn.\u00a0I understood that the race I am running is a marathon.\u00a0Like any marathon, I needed to be trained and equipped for the task. The training is hard; I need to have the endurance and perseverance to cross the finishing line.<\/p>\n
As Christians, each one of us has to run our race and we will all face difficulties along the way.\u00a0With perseverance we can resist the temptation to desist or turn aside before reaching the goal. We need to trust God in every circumstance and know that God is sovereign.\u00a0We need to focus on our final destination which is the heavenly home God prepared for us and to live our life here as He taught us.\u00a0We must always remember that salvation through Christ is our only guarantee to reach our ultimate goal. \u00a0Our Heavenly Father is waiting for each one of us at the finish line; we will rest in God\u2019s arms, will hear God whispering in our ears \u201ca job well done. You\u2019re my faithful servant.\u201d\u00a0 Let\u2019s keep our eyes fixed on Jesus as we run our race. I have been blessed to have the time to strengthen my relationship with the Lord while at PTS; I pray that you, my colleagues, brothers and sisters in Christ, will experience this same joy.\u00a0 May you wait upon the Lord patiently so you will mount up your wings like an eagle in God\u2019s time.<\/strong><\/p>\n To God be the glory.<\/p>\n Written by Minh Towner, Senior MDiv student at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My life has been a struggle, trying to survive in a foreign land far away from those I knew as a child and adult.\u00a0This struggle took a different turn, had a different meaning after I accepted my call to attend PTS. Initially I felt like I was lost in the wilderness, a sojourner in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6308,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[10,29,31,33,36,40],"series":[],"class_list":["post-690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-theological-reflection","tag-call-to-ministry","tag-pastoral-vocation","tag-seminary-community","tag-seminary-experiences","tag-spiritual-journeys","tag-women-in-ministry"],"yoast_head":"\r\n