(if you are viewing this via email, the website has a recording of this poem and commentary; click the title above)
Immediately after finishing my ThM, I started into a second master’s, this time in linguistics.
But I was mentally exhausted. I was tired of school. Coffee, which I had relied on since high school, hardly did the trick anymore.
On the other hand, I had no trouble working on multi-projector slideshows late into the night… no coffee required. While studies reduced my energy, being creative added to my energy.
I took this difference as one indication I should drop out of linguistics and pursue a career in graphics or audio visual work. The rest is history… about thirty-five years of history.
These days, I’m feeling that old mental exhaustion. To pay the bills, I’m doing a “9-5” job at the library.* Once again, coffee fails me. But creative writing? Poetry? These I could do all day and night… no coffee required.
If pleasure were my god, I’d be an atheist. Instead, I serve the Creator whose plan includes suffering, even for Himself. Did Jesus ever suffer drudgery? Did the Creator ever set aside creativity in order to achieve a lasting New Creation? Yes.
So, I must be patient as I revel in glimpses of Eternity.
— Brad Hepp, June 3, 2023
*Doldrums that I describe here notwithstanding, the library job is clearly useful in my spiritual formation.
