Patience, Prayer, and (Shameless) Promotion of Calvin College

Sometimes the reason I'm at Calvin College versus any other school stares me right in the face. Not that I want to turn this post into some kind of alma mater promotion as if I got paid for that (altho I might...), but that's just what I'm thinking at the moment. Here I am, in Colorado, at a YMCA with a hundred year history working alongside from people all over the world. It's safe to say that's pretty legitimate; I mean, I could think of more legitimate things like working at the U.N. or something but it's pretty cool that my school is able to provide an opportunity like this. The leadership experience that I've had this summer as some form of overblown leadership position has been real and the opportunities I've been able to have are impressive. That's the first thing I love about Calvin: it puts you in opportunities that are very real-world, legitimate, impressive, and formative.

The second thing I love is that Calvin is really smart about bringing things back to a Christian perspective. So, while doing this often-general leadership job, I get to hear talks from various speakers from our college debriefing the kinds of things I'm experiencing. And they always end up bringing things back to God, and more than that they do it in a way that connects with my experience and is tangible to me.

So why am I thinking about this? Well, last night we listened to Henry DeVries talk about patience. Let's add to that backdrop that I have not been a patient person this summer. When I'm one hour from go-time on an activity and we're still two cars short of getting people there, I am not patient. The thing I've recognized quite a few times, however, is that things end up working out. I think there is something of God's faithfulness in that, but there's also a lot of God's surprising (aggravating?) timing. It's this kind of timing that reminds me of a poem by Walter Brueggemann:

Just when we imagine that we have you figured out

you show up working the other side of the street

in your frightening freedom.

You meet us behind and before

as promise and as threat,

and we are overmatched whenever we sit to deal with you.

So we bid you to play less vigorous attention to us

and we bid you to give us the freedom and courage

that we may withstand you

in ways that are proper to you and to us.

We pray in the name of the utterly humble One

whom you therefore exalted.

Give us wisdom and freedom

that we may sense the ways in which we may best live in this world

where the last become first and the first become last. Amen.



God is a surprising God. As Glenn Triezenberg would say, "God's other name is surprise." More than that, God seems to like to frustrate us (or at least me). This summer, I've certainly seen that. God has worked out many things for me, but in ways that have been very frustrating. It gets to me, I mean, if God can work things out last minute why can't he work them out just a few hours before? My peace of mind would certainly not have to be sacrificed.

And that, I realized last night, is just it. My peace of mind doesn't leave room for God's surprise and God's timing. My peace of mind requires that I am in control and that my plans are being enacted, not necessarily God's. And so, once again I am reminded of the importance of prayer, a discipline designed to bring my mind in communion with God's so that my plans slowly are absorbed into his and my desires into his desires until my peace of mind consists in seeing God act, no matter how. This is a place I am not at yet, but a place that I want to go.

And so I sign off tonight with that as my prayer, and for that prayer I am grateful to Calvin College, because without both the intense, challenging experience and the wise, concrete spiritual insight I would have had these realizations. Leadership on my own is worth a lot, but to the degree I want to invite God into the picture I'm going to be frustratated when he reminds me that he is really the one in control. Leadership with God is far harder, but that is why patience is a virtue--not a happy meal toy.