New Students, Fall 2004

Listening to the 'Abrupt Yell':
Danielle Miller

Danielle Miller of Lititz, PA, believes she was called at the age of 6 to become a pastor. But the first-year seminarian at LTSP admits "I worked very hard to ignore that call for a long time. The fear of not being good enough overwhelmed me. I was not yet ready to listen to that still, small voice - or the abrupt yell - that urged me to follow my calling." Raised at Trinity Lutheran Evangelical Church of Colebrook, PA, she recalls always feeling whole in her efforts for the church. Most of her family members lived nearby as she grew up. Service and justice work and a variety of life experiences "reinforced God's presence and gentle hand in my life." Danielle has spearheaded the involvement of seminarians in flood recovery work in Bucks County in the fall of her first year at the seminary. She believes that the ideas and ideals of non-violence, love, forgiveness, justice and mercy "are not societal norms. They are counter-cultural. Being a Christian is being radical and working for what is true, regardless of public opinion. So here I am. I look forward to my journey here, because I do not believe life is about the answers but is instead about the questions. And I am here to live the questions. Christ brings us together in our wounds - his wounds and ours - and in recognizing that, we find wholeness."