Letters to my Seminarian Self

by Jonathan Haefs

I was a student at Beeson Divinity School from the fall of 2008 – fall of 2011. Seminary was an absolutely incredible experience that I sometimes wish I could relive. Yet, there are many things I know now that I wish I had been told before and during my journey.

Presently, I find myself still in close contact with many seminarians or college students who want to pursue seminary. So, naturally, I have been thinking again about the things I wish I had known. From somewhere deep in my strange imagination this particular thought surfaced just the other day, “What if I could write letters to send back in time to myself during those seminarian years?”

So that is what I’m going to do…minus the time travel part. I plan to write letters to my seminarian self that, prayerfully, may be of some encouragement or assistance to current/future/or recovering seminarians. Perhaps, by God’s grace, they may also be helpful to Christian brothers and sisters in general.

I will write one letter a week (beginning next Tuesday) until I feel my soul has been purged of its ponderings. As I recount experiences and tell stories from my seminary days I will take the liberty of changing people’s names to protect the guilty…I mean innocent…ha!

In all seriousness, I pray that the Lord may use these simple, broken thoughts to encourage us to love him with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind…to the praise of his glorious grace.

Jonathan Haefs