the latest

Last week I was accepted to the Masters in Counseling program at Covenant Theological Seminary in Saint Louis, Missouri. I'll move to Saint Louis sometime towards the end of the summer. I'll live on campus along with Natalie who is doing the same thing.

In some ways this is really scary. I actually haven't moved in a long time. New things are hard for me. My life will change a lot. It's a three-year degree. It seems like a big commitment.

In other ways this is really awesome. Saint Louis is a beautiful city and Covenant seems like a great place. And I will be studying counseling. That sounds pretty exciting. Here are my thoughts on counseling, from my application essay:

I believe that counseling people and helping them work through their hurt and their past is a way of fulfilling the Creation Mandate and restoring creation. Broken people and relationships and lives are a result of the fall, and by facing that reality and working through it, we are fighting the effects of the fall. All is not as it should be, and by the grace of God, through counseling, the church, and time, brokenness can be healed, relationships can be restored, and wrongs can be righted. That is a beautiful thing. I think that there is hope in the gospel, and I think that God also works through psychology and medicine to accomplish his purpose in his world and his people. This is exciting to me. I like to help people, listen to people, figure them out, learn them. Some people need more help than their friends or pastor can give. While some in the church decry counseling or dismiss therapy, I believe that many people need the help that professional counseling can offer. I want to be a part of that.