RBWords - Volume 37 - Number 5: May 2024
Something to Think About
I have just returned from a trip to Lubbock, TX, to attend the graduations of a number of my student friends. They were juniors and sophomores when I left two years ago. Now they are launching themselves into workplaces, professional schools and classrooms. I like to think that I am acquiring a Young Adult ministry by default! I don’t mind at all. What’s more, many of them will move from West Texas back toward Houston, where I will be living very soon, and I will have the joy of seeing them form time to time. I like to think of them as my “adopted grandchildren.” I attended five separate graduation ceremonies - a challenge to body and spirit - but it was worth every moment, especially if I was sitting with one of the families. And there were post-grad social events to attend, as well. To see how their lives unfold outside the protective womb of university life and immediate family is another privilege. On my way back to Lufkin, I stopped to see one of my first “grandchildren” at Tech. She is now a practicing veterinarian. The staff took me back to the surgery and I sat in a chair off to the side and chatted with her while she patched up a dog!!! On my way driving from Lufkin to Lubbock, I had the joy of staying overnight both ways with a couple whose wedding I performed two years ago. She is a physical therapist and he is an electrical engineer. It is fascinating to hear what their respective careers are demanding of them and how much (or how little) their university education prepared them. My “adopted grandchildren” from my 30+ years of campus ministry live all over the U.S.A. Some are even retiring and enjoying their own grandchildren, some of whom I have baptized. One couple I met as freshmen and celebrated their wedding now has a daughter who is the age they were when I met them and is starting college at the same university.! I am indeed grateful for the blessings of these wonderful people in my life and I hope to continue to add to their number from time to time. IT’S SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT . I
It Has Been Said
“It takes work not to become a curmudgeon, to be like the one cured leper of the ten who returned to thank Jesus. Gratitude is an antidote to the increasing constrictions of old age.”
From VESPERTIME - THE SPIRITUAL PRACTICE OF GROWING OLDER by Frank J. Cunningham
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