First, allow me to be perfectly clear. I am Atlanta. I was born just outside the city and have been the forth generation to live on my family’s land. I simply cannot put into words the love and devotion I have for my hometown and the entire State of Georgia. I truly believe that I have been blessed to live in the greatest city of the greatest state in the union. There is no place like home.
Pride for my family’s long history in the Atlanta area has placed a desire in me to never leave. In a way, I want to wake up everyday and work the land just like those who have gone before me and spend my evenings roaming Peachtree Street. These feelings however are at a crossroad with a passion to live somewhere else and experience other points of view. While I am one of those who can truly claim to have a heart for Atlanta and Georgia, I know that I will never have anything to offer my home if all I know is Atlanta and Georgia. I must let this passion for travel and learning lead me to new experiences that will provide me with the toolbox to return to Atlanta as a leader that can bring innovative change. For this reason, I have made a difficult decision.
In the fall of 2009, Allison and I will be moving to Winston-Salem, NC so I can attend graduate school at Wake Forest University. I have chosen Wake because I feel that it will provide me with a theological education that will both comfort and challenge my own. I also feel that Wake will give me opportunities for domestic and international travel and will allow the chance to study theology in the academic context of a university and the various disciplines I long to see blended with theology.
If you know anything about me, you know that I am passionate about awakening people to the grace of God through Jesus Christ and I believe that this awakening happens at life’s most complex intersections, those between the secular and spiritual, church and state, politics and business, literature and theology. After much thought and prayer, I feel that Wake Forest will be the best place for me to explore these intersections.
President Emeritus Father Hesburgh of The University of Notre Dame once said that “the university is where the Church does its thinking.” I pray that my time at Wake Forest is just that. I see this as a chance to engage the academic and Church community and return to something that has not existed in hundreds of years: the church as an inspiration to the university, and the university an inspiration to the church. We’re all in this together!
Please know that this move will no be easy for me and Allison and I will need your prayers and support. I love my home more than anyone will ever understand. I love the humid summer nights and the sun as it sets over the fields. I love Atlanta in the winter and watching the braves in October. I know however that this move is needed for many reasons and pray that God uses to transform my own life and through time Atlanta as well. I pray that He leads me back to this place.
Alpha Mu Forem!
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