Provocations & Pantings

A couple of days ago I shared a word from by good friend Ben Dockery who has been emailing updates to his family and friends.  With his permission, I am posting one he sent me yesterday believing that it would be as much of an encouragement as it is a call to prayer (plus, it is always nice to hear what’s happening from a more personal style than that of a reporter).  Please remember UU, and if you can, support them with a financial gift.  For more updates, be sure to check the UURecovery blog.

___________________

Friends,

The music turned back on, and I have another hero.

Day six, if my count is right.  I opened the seal on my favorite coffee beans, dumped them into my grinder, and made a fresh pot of coffee for the first time since Tuesday’s storm.  As my wife and I repared to tackle the recovery projects of the day, I selected a folk/bluegrass artist and let him sing throughout our home.  I could not help but think that this is a good indicator of where the university is on its road to renewal (borrowing a word from the February 5, 2008 video).

Spirits are up, laughter resounds, and the Union community rallies daily.  One of my heroes, Andy P., has served the students of Union for the last three and a half years.  God has called him to serve full time with the IMB in Africa, but I was able to chat with him on the phone briefly concerning the chaos following the tornado.  He is pining away to be here with students, yet his call is elsewhere.  I can’t help but think that there is no better training for his family than to handle the longings to be somewhere other than where he is.  If that is not what day one will feel like, it will feel that way shortly.

The next step on the ground is to continue executing the recovery efforts of the students belongings: painted wooden elephants from their first mission trip, a great grandmother’s wedding ring, the Bible cluttered in ever-maturing margin notes now joined by debris and water stains, and other things like a pair of glasses or a passport.  Also, we get to climb the mast, perch ourselves above the sails, stretch out the telescope, and look to the horizon.  The semester is daunting.  The emotional bandages still need to be delicately placed according to each student’s need.  The agents of pain now look like the anxieties of the next thunderstorm, the displacement felt from unfamiliar space, the unsettledness of looking to leveled grounds that used to be home to hundreds.  So many of these things are intangible, but we hope to walk along each one in a tangible way.  The God who took on skin, knee caps, eyelashes, and a man’s voice, now calls us to the task of the gospel.  It looks a little different than last semester’s ‘strategic plan’, but the call is still faithfulness.

My hero today is student named Micah. Micah played big roles the first few days, but today I asked him to stand next to a gate.  He stood in the sun and only allow authorized people to drive through.  He bore the brunt of frustrations for asking people to redirect, but he never complained.  Although the news interviews did not flock to him, he served.  Although his face suffered wind and sun burn, he was faithful  where he was.  As the music turned back on in my home, I started to realized that the call to respond to a tornado
is the call to stay at your missionary training
is the call to stand by a gate
is the call to the gospel.

Blessings in Christ,

Benjamin

This entry was posted on February 13, 2008 at 10:17 pm and is filed under Personal Commentary. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Ben Dockery, Prayer, Union University, Update