If you take a step back and boil down everything my job entails at the heart of it all is the idea of service. In Colossians 3:23-24 it says,
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
If you back up another couple of verses you find a verse that has become so central to who I am. I am referring of course to Colossians 3:17 which states,
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Taking these two verses together the mandate seems clear. Your work is service, your life is service. Service isn’t a some of the time thing and it isn’t a bullet point, but rather it’s an all the time thing that is just as big a part of my teaching and scholarship as it is a part unto its own. I do give thanks for the opportunities I have had at ACU. I have had multiple opportunities to serve on committees during my time here and I value the opportunity to work with other colleagues and to glimpse the inner workings of the university more clearly that those experiences have provided. I give thanks for my colleagues who have provided services for me and the opportunity I have in repaying that service with service of my own. I give thanks for the opportunity to be a mentor to my students and the position the Lord has put me in to be a Christian role model and influence to them. I give thanks for the church families I have been a part of and the opportunities to serve with them and through them.
The only unfortunate part of the call to service in all things is that it can feel quite overwhelming at times. Between teaching load and scholarship the average professor on this campus already feels an intense burden on their time and energies. Add to that service in the form of committee work, departmental duties, and various other activities and it’s not hard to see why the burn out rate among academics is so high. My first two years teaching this was very much my reality and I questioned whether I would rise to meet the demands of rigor the job places upon you. It is no doubt cliche, but if you love what you do it’s not work. I look back on those first two years and realized I had invested so much of myself into my job, but that I had loved it, and so to be honest in retrospect it didn’t seem nearly as burdensome. When I think about my work load today, nearly double what it was in those first two years, and how I feel at peace about it and love coming to work every day I realize that I have reached that point where my job becomes an extension of who I am and affords me the opportunity to live out the mandate of Colossians.
This section of the portfolio contains specific references to the service opportunities I have been a part of while employed at ACU. They reflect service to the university, the department, the profession, and the church. I will close by saying whatever service I have put in as a part of my position at this university it has given back to me so much more and for that I give thanks.