They say when you enter seminary that this path is not only about teaching you to help other people but it is about God helping (and saving) you by sending you down this path.

When I entered seminary, I believed the biggest hurdle for me would be the course in New Testament Greek. Basically in this class you learn to read the Greek of the c. 325 AD when the Bible came together in the form we Christians are most familiar with. I entered seminary as a leap of faith that God would provide as at the time there was no evening edition of this class that I could attend.

God did provide. Last year the seminary began offering the course in the evenings for full time workers, part time students such as me. I had mixed feelings at best. You see, back in the day, high school and an early college experience, foreign languages and I just didn't agree. I assumed I simply had no facility for the subject.

I was wrong. After years of training in artifact analysis, lots of time spent researching and writing book, and considerable years of maturity under my belt, I found I truly enjoyed the subject. Translating those sentences was like putting together a truly meaningful puzzle. It was fascinating. The nuance in meanings was tremendous.

I won't bore you with more, readers. Here's the point. God took me by the hand and walked me through a branch of study that I had written off years ago based on early experience. God brought me to an understanding emotionally of what I had been telling myself intellectually for years, people change. I change. I'm not the same person I was when I struggled through basic French and hated it.

In seminary, God has had me facing a variety of false beliefs and fears I've long held. God's helping me crumble them to dust and it is a truly liberating, if scary, experience. 

Moral of the story: don't sell yourself short based on past ... long past or near past ... experience. If God calls, screw up your courage and follow. It's worth the effort and the faith it takes.