My ACU Campus

Having completed four semesters in the Masters of Divinity program, perhaps it is a fine time to pause and offer a brief reflection on my experience thus far.  My campus is a spare bedroom in my West Virginia home resting, as many West Virginia houses do, on a ridge in the forest.  As I look out my “dorm room” window, I see a very “non-Abilene” mountain rage speckled with barns and homesteads currently covered in a layer of ice and snow.  When it is time for class, I open my laptop and log in.  When life calls, I feel free to pause and return at a more convenient time.  To some, I am “just” an online student.  

I believe, however, that being an online student makes me no less a student than my residential counterpart.  My mantra is “every student can obtain a first-class education,” although not all university enrollees are necessarily students.  Being a student requires a somewhat different skill set that just being admitted to a program.  Regardless of where one sits as they complete their assignments, learning will always be a function of dedication, effort, and attentiveness.   

Being an online student has its advantages not least of which is the ability to wear pajamas to class and feel free from judgment. The most rewarding practice that online education has encouraged in me thus far is the propensity to be swift to hear and slow to speak.  Communication, in the form of discussions, is slow and intentional and I have often redacted my writing upon review as I realize ways in which I may be misspeaking.  If I were in a “live” discussion, I fear I may often say things I would later regret. Maybe not, but I know myself well enough. This practice has begun to influence my face to face communication with others as a result.  For that, my co-workers and I are thankful.  

Notwithstanding, being an online student comes with some disadvantages.  Chief among them is the sense of separation from the broader learning community.  While I communicate with professors and students, I rarely get to talk to them.  When I do, those experiences are treasured – perhaps more so because of their rarity.  We communicate, I believe, with a communion of senses as members of a communal context.  Given that, I miss the nonverbal aspects of communication like body language, tone, and facial expressions.  You know that look your friend gets in their eye when they are about to “go off”?  I don’t.  You know that subject you can bring up and get your professor off topic?  Yeah, well, I wish I did.  

In his first book of The Ascent of Mount Carmel, St. John of the Cross offers some wisdom for attaining the “highest estate of union” symbolically located atop Mt. Carmel.  This understanding, while intended for our personal spiritual quests, fits nicely in the context of online versus residential learning.  He writes:

“To come to savour all seek to find savour in nothing;

to come to possess all, seek possession in nothing;

to come to be all, seek in all to be nothing;

to come to what you know not, you must go by a way where you know not;

to come to what you are not you must go by a way where you are not.” (1)

Let me explain.

I check my email with some regularity, and there I often find opportunities to be involved in beautiful things – if I only lived closer to Abilene.  At the close of the last semester, I received another such invitation: a weeklong interfaith retreat of Jews, Christians, and Muslims discussing dignity and respect according to our respective sacred texts.  As usual, the retreat was going to be in Texas at Lake Texoma.  I nearly hit delete, but for some reason, the words of St. John of the Cross rang in my heart – “to come to what you are not, you must go by a way where you are not.”

Things fell into place.  I drove a little over 1000 miles to Lake Texoma and committed to “go by a way where I knew not” to see what God might have in store.  The experience was phenomenal, and I am thankful to ACU for making it possible.  During the first day introductions, I was proud to say that I was from ACU although, I added, I have never been to Abilene.  The week was filled with horizon expanding discussions, and the forging of friendships with people I would have otherwise never met.  I look forward to attending again in the future.  Even the vegetarian menu was delicious; although I must admit I filled up on Burger King before pulling into the parking lot.  While the overall experience was terrific, there were some in attendance who expressed their doubts about my online education.  Could it possibly be as good as a residential one?  

It was there, by the shores of Lake Texoma surrounded by dozens of residential seminarians from all over Texas, that I hypothesized neither approach to education is “better” than another – they are simply different.  Both have their strengths and weaknesses.  I suppose people formed in the residential community have just as much need for silence and solitude as those formed in silence and solitude need community.  One of the responsibilities of a student in either setting is to realize those inadequacies (because nothing is perfect) and make a concerted effort to “go by a way where you know not.”  

I want to encourage other online students to realize that you are not “just” online students.  When opportunities for community pop up, seize them if you can – “to come to what you are not, you must go by a way where you are not.”  I guess the same is true of any student in either setting for we are all seeking to ascend Mt. Carmel.

May the blessing of Christ fill your new semester.

  1. As translated by Iain Matthew in The Impact of God: Soundings from St John of the Cross, (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1995), 36.

 

 

About the Author: Currently, I live just outside Huntington West Virginia and, in some place or another, I’ve lived in West Virginia all my life.  During the school year, I attempt to teach middle and high school students about Mathematics alongside my wonderful wife who teaches in the classroom next door.  Together, we have four children, two grandpuppies, and an appetite for travel.  In my spare time, I forgot what that feels like, I like to spend time in my woodshop making furniture.  I usually tell people to never take me too seriously unless we are talking about God, wood, or Star Wars.