Seminary Anxiety

Everyone here bites their nails. I first noticed this last Fall and the realization was at once troubling and consoling. Troubling, because this is a child’s bad habit; consoling, because at least I’m not the only one who hasn’t used clippers in years. I imagine the struggles of my fidgety companions to be similar to my own: I am ashamed of this practice and self-conscious about the public places I have chewed my hands; I would like to stop and have tried a few times with only short-term success; I have discovered that my nails grow longest when I am on vacation and away from the worries of my world. What are such worries? Why all this seminary anxiety?

Well, for starters, there’s no alcohol allowed here. Wine might gladden the heart, but it’s a prohibition of being filled with the Spirit, so we have to take our Meiomi elsewhere. There are bigger issues, of course. An MDiv costs us $65,000, and the jobs we might get on the other end don’t offer health insurance. Enrollment is down again, so our professors agonize about contract renewal and the campus boasts years of deferred maintenance. Every pastor we meet asks us if we are sure about this. We’re not, and they’re not either. No one seems very sure about anything anymore.

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From an article published by Mere Orthodoxy.