windy city redemption

I went to Chicago two weeks ago as a chaperone.  The kids were going to a ModelUN conference.  It was an…interesting trip.

We took the train from Charlottesville to Chicago.  That is one heck of a train ride let me tell you.  I figured I would bring tons of papers to check for the ride up because it was going to take about 21 hours.  Well…on the train ride up and back I checked 2 papers…out of about 70.  But it was totally worth it because instead of sitting in my seat and doing work, I had the awesome opportunity to hang out with kids almost the whole time.  We arrived in Chicago, checked into the hotel, had a great lunch, had a relaxing afternoon and the students got ready to go to committee.  I got to have dinner with one of my good friends from camp.  It was a great first day…

…late that night/extremely early the next morning, a series of events happened that made me feel like I was caught in some kind of dream…or nightmare if you will.  A couple students made some really bad decisions that led to panic, which led to more bad decisions.  The course of events that night will have lasting consequences and repercussions. 

I do not know if it is ironic or not that probably the most tears came from the chaperones rather than the students.

Through the course of events, some students that were not directly involved with the situation were treated unjustly. 

I know I am not being clear about what happened, but I can be clear as to some of the things that I learned throughout the whole trip:

• we live in a world that does not show grace and mercy often, but thank you Jesus (literally) that we serve a God that does show grace and mercy often.  in fact it is renewed every morning though we so do not deserve it at all
• redemption is a beautiful thing.  though the beginning of the trip was awful, God totally redeemed the rest of the trip.  I got to spend time with some kids that had what transpired not happen, I wouldn’t have had that amazing opportunity to spend time with them.  and with what happened to the two students, God is redeeming things in them they didn’t think possible, but are thankful that they are being worked out.
• God is working this out for good.  it is giving us as a faculty a more open playing field when discussing with the students about making good decisions

It never ceases to amaze me how God turns what seems to be the worst circumstances into something to be fully redeemed. 

God is so good!

taking a bite out of chapel

Chris Short did the chapel talk at school 2 weeks ago.  Here are a couple soundbites of his talk:

“I like the baby Jesus best” – when talking about how we tend to mold Jesus into who we want Him to be.  We often ignore who Jesus really is and make Him into the Jesus that fits what we want and what we do.

“I won’t eat a 1% poop brownie and neither will God” – he was talking about that if someone offered us brownies that only had 1% poop, would we eat it?  He connected it to the fact that it doesn’t matter if we only have 1% sin in us, God cannot tolerate sin. 

“Hammy the radical hamster” – talking about his hamster Hammy that would always escape and head for the fireplace.  He had a one track mind.  Plus he would crawl along the baseboard and take the long way even though if he cut across and take a straight shot across the room.  He connected this to when we have a one track mind, though something may be better for us, we tend to try to take our own way.

The response from the kids was really great.  It was probably the most attentive the kids have been in Chapel for a long time. 

…plus it made me say out loud whether or not I was thinking it…I refuse to eat a 1% brownie.