By Alex Treser
Whoever blesses his neighbor with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, will be counted as cursing. Proverbs 27:14
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. Proverbs 9:10
With the first semester of the Capital Fellows program already rushing to a close, there still seem to be un-answered questions for what lies ahead. There are things like what job will I have, where I will be living, and, how will I, more importantly, apply what I have learned from this fellows year to be an imitator of Christ in all areas of my life. I am learning to weigh-in on what my mind wanders to and apply wisdom to those thoughts. In our Life and Leadership class, one of the questions that Pastor James Forsyth asked was, “What do you daydream about?”. There are a lot of things I tend to daydream but with changed perspectives, words of encouragement, and reading and discussion of scripture, what I daydream about is changing.
In our Biblical Theology class with Dr. Bill Fullilove this past week, we were asked to read the book of Proverbs. It is a book chock full of wise sayings including where wisdom comes from, Proverbs 9:10. When thinking about “The fear of the Lord” I learned to not look at the individual words but the phrase as a whole, just as you would not look at the word “rainbow” as two separate words. In a nutshell the whole phrase can be explained as an affectionate reverence for God. This phrase and other discussions have helped me see that this affectionate love for God since I know He first loved me. Because of the love that God has shown me, that should be the driving motivation for why I show love and kindness to others.
As a class we were asked to take some time to gain insight from one of the lines in Proverbs 27. When told to take 40 minutes to ponder, wonder, and think through this proverb I wrestled with Proverbs 27:14. One might see at a glance that this Proverb says that you should not be loud when rolling out of the house. But after thinking and praying on it, I came to the conclusion that the one who serves his neighbor with the intent of being noticed for self-regard, instead of for Christ, is concerned about their own reputation above actually helping others. This has helped me evaluate my own motives. For example, when filling up the coffee pot before everyone gets to class I have been asking myself is this out of a love for others, am I doing this out of habit like I did when filling up waters for the volleyball team. Is this out of love for the other fellows, am I just the first one here and want a cup of coffee? This reflection has helped me think about my past actions, and future ones, to pursue Christ in everything I do and to ask myself questions on why I am doing certain actions.
When asked to think about the actions we take or the thoughts we have, I would not say we are being too introspective if the intent of our questioning is to look into these thoughts so we can be more like Christ. By doing this, we can then ask the Lord to enter in and speak wisdom and truth on the thoughts we have or the actions we take. It has been such a blessing to be receiving a lot of wise counsel every week with my fellow fellows.
Comparatively, just as if you were to read the whole book of Proverbs in a day, your brain would be on overload and you would not be able to truly absorb the information all at once. In this season of life, we are being overloaded with information as young sapling trees, absorbing the information we can and then weighing in all of these teachings and words of wisdom after being a Capital Fellow and for a lifetime.
Pictures from the Week
Become a Capital Fellow!
We are currently accepting applications for the 2020-21 program year and would love to hear from you!
Capital Fellows is a leadership and vocational development program for recent college graduates. It's a 9-month program that includes a paid job in your field of interest, service in the church and city, a personal mentor, vocational coaching, life with a host family, and customized seminary courses to help you grow in your walk with the Lord in all areas of life.
Capital Fellows is a unique and powerful way to launch your career, find Christian community in a vibrant church, and to get started in post-college life in the Washington DC area. To apply click here.
Benefits of The Fellows Initiative
You probably already know that Capital Fellows is one of 31 fellows programs in The Fellows Initiative network. But, did you know that TFI sponsors offer great benefits to Capital Fellows alumni? For example, Reformed Theological Seminary offers a 33% tuition discount for 5 years, and Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary offers a 40% tuition discount! You can learn more about TFI's sponsors by clicking here.
If you know of a graduate school, seminary, employer, or other organization that would be interested in becoming a sponsor, please contact TFI by clicking here. Thanks!
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