Home Away from Home

One of the interesting things about being in the 2nd year of the program is that you’re familiar with what’s going to happen. You don’t really know for sure of course until it happens, yet there’s a familiarity to everything. You know the support staff, you know the Dean, you know the professors from last year, you know your advisor, and you know your classmates. Perhaps the greatest part of this program isn’t in what I’m learning or the projects I’ll do or the degree at the end or the help my thesis might offer some other preacher at some point in their ministry. Perhaps the greatest part is the people I’ve met.
It’s strange in many ways how we’ve stayed in contact with one another. How we’ve visited one another. How close we all are as a group and how we seemingly have picked up right where we left off last year. That doesn’t mean there haven’t been moments of tension, tough love, and words of profound truth spoken. It doesn’t mean that there haven’t been moments when you just want everyone to go away so you can get some work done. It doesn’t mean that you always like or appreciate the colour of a particular conversation. I guess what it does mean is that we’ve become a little family for these three weeks and like most families what you look forward to is being together again and learning about all the changes in each other’s lives.
I’ve missed these people. I’ve missed their insight, intellect, wisdom, faith, understanding, honesty, voices, jokes, and dedication to preaching. I’ve missed Paul’s quiet power and presence and Jackie’s laugh and sense of call. I’ve missed Doug and his overwhelming generosity and Lora for wearing her heart on her sleeve. I’ve laughed, cried, yelled, argued and lived with these people. They are friends, they are colleagues, yet perhaps most of all they are truly my sisters and brothers in Christ.
As I reflect over what that means I need to tell you that this post was written in Grand Rapids Michigan, site of the General Synode of The United Church of Christ which meets every two years. Two friends were coming and I volunteered to go along, I know you’re shocked that I’d volunteer to go to a church meeting! It has been another great side trip, those moments in life that you never saw coming, yet the ones that have a real affect on you because you took the risk to say yes to what God was offering. I could have stayed in Chicago, yet I chose that other road, the one that puts friendship above personal wants and desires. I could have gone to a movie, yet I chose to deepen my friendship with two incredible people as we drive to Grand Rapids and back to Chicago together. Indeed life is good and rich with blessing – when we embrace the opportunities that God brings our way.