Weekly Email: September 21, 2026
We are now in the final week of the Fall 1 term. You are tired. You have a paper due and a reading list you have not finished and somewhere in the back of your mind is that fear that you do not have what it takes. And guess what, you don't. But the Spirit who raised Christ from the dead is not running low this week and he delights to tend himself on people who admit they are empty.
In this email:
- Student Tip: The Small Rocks
- Program News: The Pastoral Counseling Workshop
Student Tip: The Small Rocks
This past week we had our Fall 1 Experiential Modular and it was a great time with students. One of the things we did was a Q&A with Dr. Hamilton.
There was a question on how, as a busy student, you manage everything that needs to get done. Dr. Hamilton reflected on his own multiple responsibilities of husband, father, pastor, professor, author and more. He said it has to start with your personal and spiritual life and he emphasized it.
His point was that it's easy to get bogged down on the things we have to do and lose sight of the person we need to be. So you put your family and your spiritual life first and foremost and you let everything else flow out of that. That means spending time in the Word and prayer daily.
Then he gave the jar of rocks. You put the big rocks in first and the small ones fit in around them. Do it the other way and the big ones never go in at all. School, writing, the project that's due, those feel like the big rocks. Next to your spiritual life and your family they're the pebbles.
After that he shared some of the more practical aspects. He's figured out when he works best and for him that's the mornings before 12, so when he's working on a writing project, if he isn't able to carve out time in that window to get substantial, focused work done, he'll use that time for something else. Unless he's pressed up on a deadline he generally won't do writing, or anything like that, in the afternoon or evening, because he's less focused and less productive at those times.
So if writing for a class is on the docket this week, try to put it where you actually work best and let the things that take less focus go somewhere else, whether that's a discussion forum, or watching some lectures, or getting your notes together to upload. Get the phone out of the room while you're at it.
I can be very myopic about getting things done. Results, progress, optimizing systems, leading well. All of those have tangible indicators and you can always be striving for more and better. The spiritual life doesn't work like that. It isn't something you optimize. It's about presence, quiet, and satisfaction in God himself, which is why J.I. Packer's Knowing God is so helpful and always a good (and needed) reminder for me.
It's easy to make the excuse in a week like this one, that you'll pick it back up once the term is over. There may be seasons ahead where you have longer to devote to it. But how you respond right now is what makes you consistent later. Neglecting it altogether is a slippery path.
Program News: The Pastoral Counseling Workshop
The Pastoral Counseling Workshop is October 12 through 14 here on campus in Louisville. It's a limited attendance workshop for men serving in pastoral and counseling ministry, with lectures from Dr. Matt Haste, Dr. Robert Jones, Dr. Jeremy Pierre, and Dr. Colin McCulloch, cohort discussion after each one, and shared meals with faculty and other church leaders.
Registration is $800 and that covers your lodging and all of your meals. The code SBTS100 takes $100 off. Master's students can take it for credit as 3 hours of 35077 Studies in Biblical Counseling, though credit registration closes September 24.
This may not be for you in this season. If your pastor or someone else at your church came to mind while you were reading, send it to them instead.
