Now I’m just as busy as the next person and can easily get caught up with just “doing things” in order to get things done. As a result, I can just as easily forget what’s really important in life, namely, the people that matter most to me.
This past weekend I had a couple of conservations with some old friends who are extremely dear to my heart. I’ll never forget my time at Biola University and how pivotal it was in laying the foundation for the rest of my life. I was a young Christian, confused about many things regarding my faith (e.g., What is God’s calling on my life? How am I to understand and relate to God, intellectually and emotionally? What is the role of the church in my life? Etc.). Through the education in my classes and the mentoring of my professors at BU I was able to figure out most of those things. Of course that doesn’t mean I’ve figured them out exhaustively. But what it does mean is I have a strong theological and biblical foundation to build upon in further study, which I will continue to formulate and synthesize throughout my lifetime.
After graduating from college and entering in the normal hustle and bustle of “real” life you tend to forget the really important things in life because you’re just “busy.” What’s unique about the relationships I’ve developed at BU is that they bring into remembrance God’s entire transformative work in my life during that critical time. The community I still hold dear to my heart is a personification of my personal communion with God. So when I take a moment to speak with friends on the phone who may not live close anymore it forces me to calm down, forget everything else that’s going on in my life, reflect on all of the things I’ve learned at BU and turn my heart to the person on the other side of the phone because they’re the only person that matters at that moment. The close friends from BU act as a “Stone of Remembrance” for me, marking the faithfulness of God throughout my life. I’ve often thought about the many lessons I’ve learned from Aaron Brown. I also think about the conservations I had with Whitney (Uhler) Cox, hearing things from a woman’s perspective and trying to understand its’ complexities, which were many. Trying to figure things out on your own could be frustrating but learning within a community makes the journey worth it.
A couple of weeks ago, Whitney sent out a mass email requesting prayer for her son who was having some health issues (he’s okay now). Instead of replying to an email I decided to give her a call. We talked about all the things we appreciated about BU and the people God brought into our lives. Furthermore, we talked about the ever-changing life-stage most people go through, from being single and in college to graduating looking for a job, getting married, having kids and so forth. Upon reflection, it was ridiculous of me to ever complain about 8am classes or feeling like I never had enough time to get everything done. For some reason we believe that things get simpler as time passes. The exact opposite happens. Things don’t get simpler as we grow up they get more complicated, much more complicated. I understand that’s simply where college students are at and we were all there too. However, with some years under our belt, some time for maturation, and increasing perspective “stressing out” about exams and research papers seem small fry.
Through the conservation with Whitney, however, I realized it wasn’t a waste to “stress out” about typical college things. Actually, it helped lay the foundation for the next stage of life. Living with my roommates and having student responsibilities along with maintaining a part-time job prepared me for adulthood and the responsibilities of being a man taking care of his home. Each life stage you are currently in prepares you for the next. If this is true, then it stands to reason that by putting forth your best efforts in what ever stage you’re in, you’ll be better off when the next one comes.
For Part II click here.
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