Moments at Wheaton: what I hope to remember

Rooms ice cold with air conditioning and long summer days.

Hours of conversations, listening, sharing life experiences -- the good, the painful, ways God has worked through all of them.  (Both old and new friends who give me a safe space to verbally process through, literally, hours worth of thoughts and feelings.)

Praying with and for each other.  Debriefing as we share stories, frustrations, hopes.

Studying and interpreting the Word together.

Solemn ceremonies, honoring graduates, praising the Father for His work in the past and looking to the future.

Research and passions coming together with resources to equip us; the haven of a retreat and time to think; the pressure of time being short before we all scatter back out to our various countries and jobs.

Going out to eat, watch a movie, walk around Chicago, take pictures.  Car rides together complete with paper cuts and more inside jokes than any of us will remember come morning.

Wrestling with serious issues and seeking common ground.

Messages late at night:  Come eat s'mores with us!  Laughing until we're crying.

These are a few of the things that I treasure up in my heart, soaking in the goodness of this community for coming days that may feel colder and darker and lonelier.  We have this time given to us, a precious span of finite time that touches on eternal things.


...I rejoice that things are as they are...
-- TS Eliot, Ash Wednesday