I grew up in a world where men were obviously, undoubtedly, "who-would-ever-think-otherwise,” the most important gender. I mean, if the man is created first, the woman is created to keep him company, and he gets to name her. What other possibility could there be? Says so in the Scriptures, doesn't it?

When I went to Lexington Theological Seminary, I was pretty full of myself. I’d just graduated with a Masters in Church History—the early church mothers and fathers in particular. I had been a double major in Bible College—New Testament and Biblical Languages (Greek and Hebrew).

I figured I had pretty much what I needed to move on and work on my Ph.D.—except money. Susan and I were pretty poor. We lived in a postwar bungalow in East Tennessee with a leaky tin roof and a coal stove as its only heat source in the main room.

We paid $150 in rent …and I had to mow the grass for our elderly landlords, Stanley and Ethel.

We called it the “Love Shack.” And if you've ever heard the song by the B-52s, you've got a picture of our living conditions.

After graduation, I needed a job I was trained for. Working catering at the local hospital didn’t feel like a good long-term financial strategy. So, I went back to seminary to work on my M.Div., because they promised me free tuition and a job preaching in a church.

I wasn't wild about having to preach, but we needed the money—and preaching, or something very similar, was about all I was trained to do.

So, we moved to Waddy, Kentucky, and I became the student pastor at Waddy Christian Church.

But despite our nagging financial woes and my lack of enthusiasm for being a minister, I was sure I'd breeze through my M.Div. at Lexington and then move on to grad school and a Ph.D. program.

After beginning classes at LTS, I became even more convinced I was much further along the theological trail than everyone else. One of my first classes was New Testament Introduction with one of my favorite professors of all time, Sharyn Dowd.

After class began, she wrote "Mark 12:3" on the blackboard.

She then proceeded to explain that Mark corresponded to one of the books of the Christian Scriptures. "'Twelve,'" she said, "is the chapter number. And 'three' is the verse."

"Then," she said, "let's practice."

And we spent much of the first class practicing looking up passages in the Bible.

I couldn't believe it. I mean, come on! I’d already translated several of those books directly from Hebrew and Greek. I mean, I was the reigning sword drill champ from Vacation Bible School, for crying out loud! What was this place supposed to be, anyway?

After class, I waited to talk to Dr. Dowd. "Why did we have to do that stuff with looking up Bible passages? Do people not already know how to do that?"

She was patient with my unbearable smugness, thank God. As the last students exited the room, Dr. Dowd said, "Did you see that woman?"

"The one who just left? Sure, I saw her."

"She graduated college with a biology degree before being called to study for the preaching ministry. She's extremely bright. She just doesn't have a background in this stuff. Give it a little time. She's going to impress you with how good she is at this stuff."

"Yeah, sure she is," I thought.