The Beginning of Again

This is home.

The smell of Arnold, the view from Mac's, the cafeteria toaster bursting into flames, the familiarity of my favorite department, the pre-chapel chatter, running into that certain Latimer door when the magnet doesn't release in time, the flash of a smile from a professor that makes my day, knowing that dinner isn't great when the sub line is long, the daily “Hello!!” from Trudy, late night dorm conversations, snow days on the threat of flurries, textbooks that I want to keep for life, the delight of actually getting something in the mail after struggling to turn the combination, being Facebook friends and fellow church members with my professors, Woodlee fire drills because everyone loves popcorn, Ben Norquist's beard, our quirky “triangle” that is more similar to a tetracontagon, and the love here that draws and cultivates my life into who I was meant to be.

Don't mistake me. It's not that every experience is rosy and nostalgic, but rather that each circumstance presses me further into the congruence of what I know and how I live.

My eyes shine to read our Statement of Faith, which affirms that God created us in His image as related in the book of Genesis. The glory of letting the very Word of God speak for itself is beautiful to me. This commitment is infinitely sweet, and it brings me to rejoice in the truth of God's divine and personal act of creating us with intrinsic worth and value. I delight in the truth that we are taught, and that Bryan is known for. Yet that truth does not remain static.

Bryan is also known for the love here – institutional congruence that what we believe about the origin and nature of man calls us to treat others with dignity, honesty, appreciation, and gentle concern for their well-being. Search the Bible and find that again and again, loving God cannot be separated from loving people. It is the great meta-theme of God's anger at Israel for oppressing the people even while they worshiped at the Temple, of fasting but not feeding the hungry, of upholding the Law but burdening the people, of providing unblemished lambs but at an exploitative price, of rushing to the synagogue right past the man beaten by robbers and lying in a ditch.

Let Bryan College be utterly devoted to the knowledge and love of God, and from that, just as devoted to being the hands and feet of God's love for his people. Care tenderly! Manifest grace! Speak with integrity! Provide for your neighbor, which includes those that are as different from us as the Samaritans were the Jews. May it be that the truth of the significance of man is supported and not undermined by the actions of Bryan College.

I long and pray for this college that I love so dearly to uphold all that which sums up the Law and the Prophets: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself.