I am at peace with God. Some of you know the heart-wrestling and wrangling that comes along with being a parent letting older children ‘go’ — off to college, off to marriage, off to work. Others of you experience that watching with little power your baby run headlong in the opposite direction from YOU. What does it take to raise a child? A grudging willingness to give our ambivalence to God — again and again and again. And to trust him with it.
Of course I am writing about this today because yesterday I helped my elder daughter move back into her dorm room. We ate dinner with the delightful young woman who was her R.A. last year. My daughter calls her “Mom,” and they hugged on one another like sisters. I looked across the table at them and shook my head, “Does it seem weird to y’all that you didn’t even know each other last year at this time?”
Now my daughter is going to be a “FRAD,” a “FReshman ADvisor,” so she is here early for training. We met a guy who will be “FRADDing” the boys on the hall below her last night. (Well, I met him. She knew him.) While she talked with another friend, he and I stumbled upon a gracious conversation about — well — grace. Long but sweet story. I’ll just leave you with two thoughts I walked away with:
He looked at me with these eager brown eyes and asked, “What’s the best story you’ve heard recently?” (This was after a brief discovery that yes, I knew who Donald MIller is, and I teach people about discovering God’s grace in their stories.) If you know me, you know I loved that question.
Second thought: After he asked my daughter the same question about her time in Camden, he asked her if she knew if there were other R.A.’s or FRADs who were looking at their work as part of the ministry of the kingdom of God. “Because that’s really what we’re doing you know.”
As so often, lots more could be said. But I’ll leave you with his questions and with the recognition that while I may shed a few tears as I drive the 8 hours home today, I will be smiling through them. God is at work in His kingdom, and all must be well.
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