About time.

Today I graduated from Auburn University.  While the moments were bittersweet and nostalgic, it was about time.  College, what for many Americans has become a quintessential right of passage, is meant to be outgrown.  None of us could or should stay forever.  Even students who aim to teach at their alma mater must first acquire a terminal degree from some other institution.  There is much to be said for branching out and moving forward.

Throughout my senior year I've returned time and again to Hebrews 11:13-16:
 " ¹³All these people were still living by faith when they died.  They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.  And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.  ¹⁴People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.  ¹⁵If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.  ¹⁶Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one.  Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them."

The lessons through which I've walked with this passage are the sum of what I've learned while at Auburn:

• Things any of us are positively destined to receive won't always be acquired when we expect them to come.
• What we want or expect for ourselves is not always what's best.
• As humans we can barely begin to understand the height or depth of our Lord's presence or of his love for us.  As Greta Schrumm said, "Prayer is our tired reaching out to the One who holds us closer and loves us more than we would ever dare imagine."
•  The road awaiting those who follow the voice of God is deeper and richer at every bend.  We can look forward in full faith that the Lord who goes before us is preparing everything we need for being about his glory; as we are made in his image, nothing could bring us more satisfaction than making that glory known.

I learned more from Auburn than ever would have been expected.  The culture shocked me, threw me, and grew me.  While I came at first looking to enlighten a group whom I saw in need of knowledge and experience, I was humbled as I realized how much those people stood to teach me.  That's what I'll take from Auburn: a firm understanding of my own short-sightedness, and a resolve to work to understand others.

Thank you, Auburn.  Thank you for lessons in hospitality, in football, in deep friendship, in the redeeming lessons of earthly failure, in grace, and in faith.

Now in that faith- carrying what we've learned- it's time to press forward.  While part of me would love to sit for days reflecting over the past four years I've glimpsed just enough of the good Lord's glory to yearn for what more is ahead.  It's about time to dare to imagine how close he is.  It's about time to dare to expect him to move among us- but only as we strike out in search of what he has prepared.