AUGUSTUFF: 2000 years of it

Calendars had more blank space back then.

Fresh out of seminary decades ago, I was basking in the advice of well-seasoned denominational leaders: “Pace yourself. Take time off. Catch your breath. Schedule vacations.”

I swam in the non-digital, analog, slower, paper, and whatever-other-adjectives we have now for “as long ago as the 1900s” as a younger friend says. All of that is to say: a real vacation early in August back then.

Often, for a variety of reasons, that vacation time was simply what we’ve since learned to call a Staycation. Usually that involved piles of papers and always boxes that needed to be sorted through. I came to think of those things that remained after the trash was picked up as The Stuff of August...things too good to ignore.

And now here you and I are today. In August. I have some good Stuff. You know: AugustStuff.

Look, here’s an example now —

Wally, legally Warren Lathem is a long time friend in real life. Here he writes about the blessings that are our influences. He says so much so well, and it’s with his graciously expressed permission that I can share it with you here —

While posting about spending 6 months studying and writing 144 devotions on Revelation, I reflected on the amount of work invested by Dr. Dan Dunn and I. However, it goes well beyond those 6 months.

In some ways it has been a life time of work, beginning in the little Methodist Churches of our youth, multiple courses taken in College and Seminary, Bible studies along the way, sermons researched and preached across 50+ years of ministry, Dan’s teaching Inductive Bible Study on Revelation in seminaries, etc.

But the work goes far beyond that.

We had the benefit of almost 2,000 years of Christian scholarship from which we drew great assistance. The early writings going all the way back to Ignatius and traveling through the centuries informed our work.

Writing by Martin Luther, Matthew Henry, John Wesley, and other Methodist lights helped us. Modern scholars’ commentaries were of great help. Particularly Dr. Mullholland’s lifetime of researching, writing, and teaching was most helpful.

All this is to say, our six months of work only scratches the surface of the volume of work devoted to this project. We truly stand on the shoulders of the saints who have gone before us, great clouds of witnesses.

Some question the value of theological education. Not me.

Like all things, seminaries have a variety of levels of quality, but the basic need for theological education is beyond question. We just need to make sure we do it well. We have tried to do that in founding the Seminario Wesleyano de Venezuela. Twenty two years later, we still place great value on this work. Dan is a scholar. I am not. But I do greatly value quality scholarship.

Giving thanks today for those who spent a lifetime producing that which is now available at our fingertips.