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Thankful for a lot of work? I'm not a big fan of work. Unfortunately my life has been nothing but 70 hour work weeks since I was 19. I say that to say that I generally don't enjoy things that make me work. Seminary has often proven to be true to this degree, for me. However, I'm taking a required preaching lab this semester that is renowned at our seminary to be one of the most difficult classes in the school's degree program. I've been told that it's one of the most difficult preaching labs in the country. It's difficult for two reasons. First, it's difficult because of the course requirements. In one semester we have to preach 7 sermons ranging in length from 35-45 minutes. They have to be expository messages preached in sequential order from a single passage. In addition to delivering the sermon we also have to turn in 8 pages of in-depth exegesis. Secondly, though, it's difficult because of the grading scale. Our professor's grading scale is 100-96 for an A, 95-90 for a B, 89-84 for a C and 83-76 for a D.

Having said all that, I'm thankful for the difficulty of the class. While I wasn't looking forward to the class prior to taking it, I've learned tremendously from it. I assumed that since I had taken preaching classes in college and that since I had been preaching expository messages for over 10 years now that I didn't need much help. Boy, was I wrong. It's funny how the more I learn, the less I know. Anyway, thanks to Dr. Ben Awbrey and his tough class, it's been good for me.