Last night, unable to fall asleep, which is pretty typical for me in new surroundings, I was listening to the podcast for the NPR show "To the Best of Our Knowledge." The guest, who's name I can't remember, was a physicist adamant in his position that all who believe in God are "intellectually lazy." Not really a great thing to hear on your first day of seminary orientation. Or, maybe actually a really good thing to hear.

Earlier in the day, Dean Ian Markham told us in his welcoming address that if we leave VTS thinking it's okay to skip a day spending time in personal prayer, the faculty and administration will have failed us. I choose to believe this. My grandmother's uncle once told me that we believe in God mostly because if we look around and really pay attention to our lives, we know there is God. And if I look at my path to this place, I can't imagine it was anything other than God that brought me here.

Even so, I sometimes find myself praying to be helped in my unbelief. Yesterday was full-up with orientation activities (and I bought my Hebrew book!), but in the middle of all that was a Eucharist. We sang one of my favorite hymns, "Come Though Fount of Every Blessing." I love the lines, "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above." My skin felt a little electrified during the whole service, and especially as we sang that hymn, and again, I can't imagine it was anything but God that brought me here.