Sam Prellwitz

(exert from a sermon I gave a week and a half ago) One of my favorite lines in the story of Esther reads like this, “Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?” It always makes me wonder... Who knows... maybe I was placed here - wherever here is at the time - for such a time as this. And it makes me wonder just as much... Who knows, perhaps you were placed where you are now, with the family you have, with the home you have, with the job you have or don’t have, with the friends you have, for such a time as this, so that you might jump in a way that most people think is crazy, and play the part in God’s best story.

I’m thinking of getting a ‘smart’ phone. I don’t know that the kind really matters in the end. What I keep wondering though, is whether or not I’m grown-up enough for it. I wonder whether I can overcome the typical addiction that it causes. They can certainly make a person more organized and effective, but that only happens when someone is mature enough to also put the thing away. Nothing kills the conversational or productive mood more than a person addicted to their phone. So I ask myself, will I be able to put it away? Because if I won’t be able to, then I really need to think twice about this whole thing. I’m learning that being honest with your own maturity is more important than being up on the latest thing. Being responsible seriously makes life better.

Sometimes its best to act quickly and definitively. Other times its better to wait. Too often I find myself waiting when I should act quickly and acting quickly when I should wait. So when do you act quickly and when do you wait patiently? Psalm 27:14 says, “Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord” (NLT) When I’m happy that I acted quickly and definitively, it’s normally because I felt resolutely about the decision I made. I normally had a quick and quiet confidence about a certain decision. When I’m happy that I waited, it’s normally because I lacked that kind of confidence and took the time I needed to acquire it. Perhaps in both cases I waited patiently for the Lord. Perhaps its trusting God to supply you with that confidence in one decision or the other and then acting bravely and courageously when He supplies. Whether it comes quickly or slowly, we should probably wait for it.

God asks Jonah to take his message to Nineveh. He runs the other way. Finding himself on a boat with torrential winds and rain he gets thrown overboard so that the storm would calm. Jonah is swallowed by a fish. One might imagine that he was rescued in the midst of his darkest moment, when he thought it was all over; finished. Jonah's tone turns from contempt for God, to gratitude and praise. Question: Why does it take God finding us at our lowest, to provoke out of us the most raw and real praise?

I'm currently applying to Seminary. If accepted, I'll attend Bethel Seminary's InMinistry program beginning this fall. I've heard great things about the program and I'm very much looking forward to participating in it. If you're thinking about attending seminary, or you're just interested in what types of questions someone applying to seminary are asked to answer, you can read the quesions and my essay/response below: Please write your response to the following topics (Please make it one and one half to two typed pages, single spaced.) 1. Describe your Christian experience, including conversion and significant factors in your spiritual formation. 2. Describe your understanding of the task of ministry, previous ministry experiences, and your own sense of call. 3. Comment on your understanding of the mission of the Church and the role of the local church in that mission. 4. Explain why you want to pursue a seminary education.  My friend and I climbed the bleac...

Like syrup coming off of a maple tree. Now say that again, slowly and with a bit of twang: Like syrup coming off of a maple tree. I heard these words come off the tongue of a southern man caught in northern country. I heard in his voice a sweet nostalgia for a place he loved. I don’t think it was the land, per say, but it WAS the place. And it wasn’t that he said he missed the place, but in his voice was a longing; sweet and real. I hope my voice tells of the things that I love. I hope that kind of life grows in me as I age. I hope it comes off my tongue as wonderfully as it did his.

Quote from Augustine’s Confessions (4.8.13) “… longing for someone absent with impatience and welcoming the home-comer with joy. These and similar tokens of friendship, which spring spontaneously from the hearts of those who love and are loved in return - in countenance, tongue, eyes, and a thousand ingratiating gestures--were all so much fuel to melt our souls together, and out of the many made us one.” This is a short exert from Augustine’s Confessions. It’s part of a lament of sorts, grieving a lost friend. When I read it, I feel the emotion in his tone. It’s inspiring and heart-breaking in the same breath. To find such intimacy in friendship is stunningly difficult today. Today these words might be met with uncomfortable squirms from most men. I think that’s a shame. I think friendship, the kind that Augustine speaks of here, is generally lost. In the midst of all of our communication we have not the time, nor the desire to know, understand, and invest in a friend. And we are worse...

For a while I uploaded all the questions for the coming week's youth group. A lot of them, I found, were mostly for getting conversation started. They didn't seem super appropriate for this space, but I do love asking questions. So I've resolved to simplify it. Each week I'm going to share one question from the coming week's small group material. It will be the most pointed, most gritty question that we're going to wrestle with that week. I'll give a simple explanation of the week's topic and then ask the question. This week the topic is the story of Esther. (kick-butt story!) And here's the question that follows: Mordecai said, "If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die." What do you think about this? (My Thought: God always takes care of business, but he invites us to be part of it and choosing to be part of it, even though scary at time...

Sometimes I read books or blog-posts by people that seem all conversational (my insertion of the word “all” in the last sentence bears witness to the fact that I’ve acquired this writing style for myself). In general I like to read conversational writing. I find it easy to read and often very interesting. I think it can achieve the goal of making me feel like I’m sitting in their living room chatting late at night. But I wonder sometimes if there’s another reason that I like it. I think that, when I read that tone, I believe the author to be more genuine, more truthful. I get the feeling that they really think what they’re writing and live what they’re saying. As I thought about that idea for a while, it occurred to me that the thing I find most attractive in a friend, author, or speaker is honesty. I think that I have an intrinsic ability to know when a person is being truthful about what they think and how they act. There are tons of words for this: truthful, honest, real, authentic,...