On Following Up Your Good Ideas but Not Taking Yourself Too Seriously

On Following Up Your Good Ideas but Not Taking Yourself Too Seriously
2 Samuel 5: 1- 25

I am coming to the end of my fortieth year as a professor. On Sunday evening, the day before yet another new quarter started, a friend asked me a question that unintentionally made me feel rather chastised. After I’ve had so many “first days” of a quarter, she asked whether I have particular ways in which I pray or things that I hope for when I meet a new group of students. I felt chastised because I hadn’t been praying about it and didn’t have any expectations from God, though I didn’t feel as chastised as the occasion on a Saturday evening previously when another friend asked me about my sermon for the next day, and I had to confess I didn’t know what I was going to preach on. But the sermon went okay (at least, one or two people expressed appreciation); and the class went much better than I felt last quarter’s classes did (which had been the background to the question). All this proves nothing; perhaps God was speaking through the sermon and working in the class for the sake of the congregation and the students while rolling eyes at my irresponsibility. Or perhaps it is okay for me to make use of the fact that I can usually get away with doing things quickly (as I am doing in writing this series on the Old Testament for Everyone, so you can decide) or with leaving things till the last minute and relying on my personality to get me through...