Funny, as old as we are, we are so unconscious of those we
influence or those who influence us. Yesterday I helped with the registration
for the Teen Leadership Conference on our campus…some four hundred senior
highers filled our dorms, spilled over the sidewalks and ran from raindrops
yesterday afternoon.
However, as exciting as it was to see all of that, what I
loved best was recognizing faces, not the faces of the teenagers, but of their
youth leaders bearing the papers needed to register their groups, Eileen’s smile still lights up a room, and
though Johnny did not recognize me, I recognized him. And I could name a bunch of other graduates,
still in ministry, graduates even from the last century – now that sounds
impressive.
We hear so much negative about young people (I’m in my
sixties, so young encompasses a pretty big group), but the one word that kept
echoing in my mind yesterday was faithfulness.
These young men and women are still living lives of faithfulness. They are still loving God in practical ways,
the evidence of which was written all over the really young people they brought
back to campus.
I’m sure influencing me was the last thing on their minds
yesterday, but they influenced me – all those kids who once sat in my (our)
classrooms, our chapel services, our dorms.
I loved reading the peace and excitement (yes both) on their faces. I know they have lived through lots of pain,
because if you work with kids and love kids, you will face pain with them. But their faces also bore a lightness, a
tenderness, the marks of that love, not the tough cynicism, the hardness, the
sadness, the resignation I see on the faces of so many.
Today, I am influenced and encouraged by young alumni, who
bless us all by their fidelity.
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