Planning- The Last

In a statement of 500 words or less, describe and reflect on your life journey and the vocational directions toward which you are pointed.

Oh, this is where I’m supposed to have an answer, isn’t it? Where I know where I came from and what I want to do in life?

Ugh. This is it.

I could lie, say that I have it figured out, that there is a call on my life, always has been, and that I’ll be a revolutionary pastor. Changes will come rolling down because of the Spirit sent to be a part of my existence.

I could be more honest, say that I’m not sure what the future holds for me, but getting a masters of divinity is the current best possible option for me. I’d write something dry, a considered opinion on why admissions officials should put my application in the acceptance pile, convincing you that I will succeed at your university. I’m good at that. 

I could write something from the heart. I could tell you that I have a burning passion for the Church hiding under layers of sarcasm and self-doubt. I want to believe that the world could be much worse and that we need to work to maintain and grow the good in the world. I could lead off with a story about a hero and close with a lesson from a villain because I believe that mistakes are not equivalent to complete breakdowns in your moral fiber. That essay would roll off your tongue and reach down into your soul and I could write that thing. But it wouldn’t say a thing about being accepted to your school, so we try again. 

Personal statements are odd, telling strangers your deepest hopes. Because that’s what I’m doing here- chasing my deepest hopes. It is odd to me that something I hold so dear, that lights up my life like a fairy glow in the distance, that I can trap in my hand but never hold, could be achievable and that your piles of paper and books could help me do that. I cannot imagine that there’s a place for my dreams in your system. 

But that’s what I’m betting on here. I think that your school will be the place where the deep hope I have grows into something real and tactile, something functional that spreads its light into the useful places of the world. I’m banking on the idea that you’ll help my hope-dreams live. That’s why I want to pay you all of this money, learn these things, make these connections, and jump through these hoops; I want my hope to grow. 

You understand that, right? 

You see that often? 

Listen, you trust me with your school’s name and I’ll trust you with my hope. It’s an agreement that you must make thousands of times each year. I can’t guarantee that this time it’ll be anything other than average, but I will work to make extraordinary things happen in this world, and I will work to make them start here, if you let me.

Thank you for your consideration.