Greetings once again from Pohang, Korea! My wife and I have just arrived back on Handong's campus after nearly 20 hours of traveling. The new spring term is shortly to begin and so we're embarking on the next stage of our sojourn here. Over the past seven weeks of winter break, I enjoyed a wonderful time of refreshment visiting with family and friends in St. Louis and Portland (hence this blog's hiatus).
Something dawned upon me, though, within my first few days back in the States -- the pace of life in the U.S. is substantially faster than the pace I had been experiencing here at Handong over the fall term. This realization came during my second week back in St. Louis as I was driving along Interstate 44 (at the speed limit) from downtown, where I had attended the Urbana Missions Conference at the A.G. Edwards Dome, out to Fenton. I started to become quite aware that my days back home had been very stressful and tense. I thought that I would have been relieved to be in familiar surroundings, but I was experiencing quite the opposite -- greater tension, increased stressfulness.
Then, like the proverbial light bulb going off over my head, it came to me. For over four months while living in Korea, I had been leading a walking-paced life on the campus of Handong. I lived where I taught, where I worshipped, even where I shopped and occasionally went out to eat (at Mom's Kitchen -- a favorite little restaurant in the Student Union). As I was back in St. Louis, however, all I had been doing was driving every day. You had to drive to get anywhere you needed to go in nearly every case.
What a difference! -- A driving-paced life on the one hand and a walking-paced life on the other. It doesn't take a great deal of analysis to conclude which pattern of living is more favorable to a happy and healthy emotional, intellectual and spiritual life. So, now that we are back in Korea and back to living on Handong's campus, we are looking forward to getting back into a walking-pace of life.
I find it quite interesting that the life of one who lives by and through the gracious gift of God in Christ is described by the Apostle Paul as a "walk" and not a "run". With this awareness, Rich Mullins wrote: "Step by step you lead me and I will follow you all of my days."
If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Galatians 5:25
About Me
- Cordell P. Schulten
- Fenton, MO, United States
- Cordell is an adjunct professor of Humanities and Social & Behavioral Sciences at Missouri Baptist University. Prior to this role, he served as the Dean of Students at Valor International Scholars in Anseong, Korea. He has also served as a guest lecturer at L’Abri Fellowship in Korea, a teacher at Heritage Classical Christian Academy and as the English Ministry pastor at the Korean Presbyterian Church in Kirkwood, Missouri. From 2009 through 2014, Cordell taught American Law at Handong Global University in Pohang, Korea. He has also previously taught at both Missouri Baptist University and Fontbonne University in St. Louis, Missouri. Before teaching, he practiced law for ten years. Cordell earned his MA in Theological Studies from Covenant Theological Seminary in 2004 and his JD from Saint Louis University School of Law in 1986. He has also studied Theology & Culture at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. Cordell and his wife Sandy have been married for 44 years. They have four grown children and five grandchildren. He is the author of Life Abroad @ Handong and Le Chemin: Wholly Following the Path of Jesus.
No comments:
Post a Comment