Half My Life

4+7+24=35.

It isn’t meant to be a difficult math problem.  It is what I am thinking about this weekend. It is one way of documenting my relationship with Hope College.

4 years as a student.

7 years as an Assistant Chaplain.

24 years on the Board of Trustees.

35 total years in a direct relationship with a college.

That is over half my life!

Anyone who knows me, knows that Hope College is a very important place to me. It has very little to do with it being an outstanding educational institution, although it is that.  It was a place where I discovered the joy of learning, where I learned the amazingly broad world of liberal arts with exposure to the arts and literature and philosophy, which I never would have chosen on my own. It was the place where I discovered intellectual curiosity and passion. I learned at Hope that I had intellectual gifts and that it was acceptable to utilize them!

But all of that was secondary, which may seem strange for an educational institution. The primary thing I discovered at Hope was a vibrant Christian faith. I was challenged and nurtured by the college Chaplain, professors and coaches to take Christianity seriously. Hope College provided mentors and models for me who were overt about their faith and who were “real” people, engaging the “real” world.

Hope College is also where I met the person who has had the most profound influence on my life, my wife, Becky. We were an odd couple then. Some think that is still the case! I was an uber-extrovert, and she was the poster child for introversion. She was drop dead gorgeous. I was a jock. Some of our friends (and maybe even our family members) wondered if we would ever last as a couple. Thirty-seven years later, we are more committed to one another than ever before, and embracing all the God puts before us. We need each other!

It was at Hope College that I learned the necessity of seeking God’s will and embracing it with obedience. I didn’t learn that in a classroom. I learned it by the living examples that surrounded me. It was in that environment that the seeds of full-time professional ministry were planted in my heart.

Hope College has provided for me life-long friends. They are people from whom I can be separated by geography and time, but can renew an in-depth relationship the moment we are together. These are people I respect, trust and love.

This weekend I conclude 24 years of service on the Hope College Board of Trustees. It has been a long and wonderful journey, with times of difficulty, moments of trial, as well as great successes. It has been service that has given me more than I have given.

I thank God for giving me the gift of attending Hope and for placing all the people in my life who have been so influential. God is good, all the time!

Rev

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