Before and during my seminary education I worked in accounting. It was my major at Central Michigan University. My first job in a regional public accounting firm came with the expectation that I would soon pass the CPA exam which consisted of four sections. Several of my co-workers had a review class as part of their university/college curriculum and passed the entire exam on their first attempt. I did not have such a class, nor did I pass the exam the first or second time I tried it. On the third time I passed two sections. And on my fourth and fifth attempts I passed one section each to finally complete the exam.
You see, to get any initial credit at all you had to pass at least two sections. This approach prevented you from focusing on only one section at a time. You had to have a multidimensional understanding of accounting from the very beginning of the process. Looking back I am glad that was the approach. While we are not equally skilled in all areas, having a broad view of our profession gives us a stronger foundation and an orientation for facing the challenges that come our way.
The writer of Ephesians encourages us toward a multidimensional approach to faith and our relationship with God: "I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:18-19). Another version goes this way, that "you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God" (The Message).
In every major change in my life God has shown me new dimensions of faith, extended the boundaries of wonder and knowledge, and brought me in to new relationships. I trust that God has been working out such plans for all of us in this transition. May we celebrate the wideness of God's mercy and love, the power of grace and the joy of service, not separately but all together.
