God is just so so good. As the holidays approach, one always (or at least I always) contemplate the past year. I year ago, I was at a different job, working round the clock, too busy for a social life, just trying to stay afloat. God taught me so much through that tough and burdened time: To lean on him, and look to him for deliverance, to trust him regardless of what my circumstances suggested. A year later, with a job at Focus, a vibrant social life, and a passion for the students I am serving 'He turned my mourning into dancing'. Working with high schoolers has made it impossible for me to not reflect on my own struggle to survive that difficult time in school. Like my work experience last year, (though in pain I was being prepared to leap into the seemingly insane path of ministry) I now see how my tortured years of high school perfectly fashioned me for the work I now do at Focus. At graduation in 2003, I was battered and confused by the emotional/spiritual drought that my Fairfield County High School experience had produced. But in reality, I was gaining a unique experience that has made me perfectly prepared to serve the students at Focus who are within the same drought, whether they know it or not.
My own high school experience has been much on my brain as my five year reunion is this coming weekend. When I graduated, I shook the dust of that school and felt satisfied at the idea of never returning, not even for a visit. But being human, I have a really hard time letting go of unresolved relationships. I really felt that God was telling me to let go of those broken friendships and entrust them to him. This year, through joining the Focus team, God has given me the ability to reconnect with many friends from my high school summers. He has brought friends back into my life, who I had really had to let go of because of distance and circumstance. The photo above, from this past weekend in Princeton, shows me walking with my fabulous girlfriend Meredith who went to Michigan with me. Amazingly, we both independently started working for Focus in the same month. Because of high school I had learned to let go of friendships, God has been showing me that when I entrust them to him, he will lovingly bring them back. I can't express the joy in this. Redemption and reunion, in the true sense, is really an act of God, something we can't make happen by our own means. This actually gives me the freedom to let go of the relationships that may be better left alone (reunion in mind), and trust God can and will renew all things in his timing. I'll keep you posted on how this weekend goes. I'm sure that there is some lesson in store!
