Name that film:

“I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed–but can you ever be just whelmed?” “I think you can in Europe.”

According to the dictionary, ‘whelmed’ is pretty much the same thing as ‘overwhelmed.’ Either way, that’s how I’ve felt the last few months, and I’m still in the thick of it. In December, the dean of PBU’s Bible department, Herb Hirt, asked me to take over a January-term class on the book of Isaiah. Faced with such a great opportunity to get some teaching experience, needless to say–like the Russian billionaire in the DirecTV commercials–“I jump een eet!”

After January, I spent much of February writing a paper for the Evangelical Theological Society meeting. That experience was very rewarding, because I was able to use quite a bit of what I’d been reading in preparation for my oral exams. Tomorrow I fly to Wisconsin to teach Pauline Epistles at PBU’s wilderness campus. When I get back, I fly out five days later for two weeks in Stellenbosch.

As exciting as all these experiences are, I’m sort of looking forward to getting back home and starting on my thesis in late April. I’ve also been thinking lately about not jumping right into doctoral work immediately after finishing my MTh in November (d.v.). There’s so much I haven’t read; I want to come up to speed on NT studies, and study some more philosophy. I used to discount philosophy as simply theology’s clumsy handmaiden–but that was foolish. I also want to read through the entire Bible in the original languages.

Of course, if I were not in school or teaching or writing papers, I would be disappointed that I didn’t have these excellent and exciting tasks. The grass is always greener…

What would you read if you suddenly had more time? Oh yeah–and, name that film.