Memory Lane:

Here I sit in one of my last chapels listening to the song “Praise Him Still,” and suddenly I no longer stand in unison with my fellow students, rather I sit to type this and what was initially a time of praise, becomes for me, a time of reflection and settle lament over knowing my days at Moody Bible Institute are on the heels of ending. “But that’s okay, because then there’s ‘new things’” one fellow student recently asserted to me before chapel. As this is true, I shake my heart in un-contemplated thoughts about the ‘old things’ about all I have experienced, learned, and gone through while attending MBI: the relationships I came to have, the professors who left their echoing influence upon my life, the things I learned about the Bible, life, and Jesus which left me awestruck and crying in class as the realities of our God and faith peeked at the ‘eyes of my heart’ and left me satisfied yet longing.
Or what about the family drama and death of a dear relative from home, while in the midst of this I came to learn and experience that tasting and seeing God's goodness (Psa 34) comes not through tasting something delicious, rather experiencing pain and discomfort. Surely doubt and temporal disarray due to circumstances often leaves one alone in the shadow of the cross, lost in the exodus and ironically this is often when we are most aware of the Other.
Why, I can hear my professors’ voices in my head instructing me in an area of life which I have since then, dispensed to others. I can still see the eyes of some professor fill with tears when the Christ they have been teaching about for years suddenly becomes rediscovered in the midst of class. Memory lane never has a rush hour and we as Christians need to travel upon it often otherwise we will not grasp with appreciation or remember rightly all of which our God of awesomeness has done on behalf of our betterment. How about the relationships outside of MBI which came from the neighboring Moody Church: I think of Earl, Patti, Ron & Lois, and of course the Nelsons. These people wrought with godliness, sincerity, and humble zeal are but pieces of clay in the Potter’s hand used in my life molding me into who I am. Or what about the meeting of Amber Christine, now my wife.
“Because there’s new things.” New things, huh? The fruition of these new things I await while recalling the faithfulness of YHWH in the ‘old things’ of my time at MBI, making me to never shy from the shadow of the cross and enjoy the new exodus we Christians are currently in. I encourage you, perhaps a new husband or wife, new father or mother, whoever you are to travel down memory lane more often than not and realize anew how indebted we as the people of God are to the Holy. Come, come Lord Jesus, Come.