Updated 2/16/12
There’s something special about being around people who know you…
Who know what you’re about…
Who get what you do.
That isn’t easily accomplished as a college minister… which is one of the reasons I love getting away to college ministry conferences a couple of times a year.
And it’s like breathing in some of the freshest, cleanest air available.
It penetrates to the soul… and begins to regenerate, heal and bless.
As a few of us sat around last night, re-connecting late into the eve, our conversation eventually turned to our students and ministry on campus.
Without fail, as we shared around the table, each one of us lamented over the frenetic pace of life our students choose to keep.
We wondered whether or not they know differently… that there’s a way of life that’s slower… more peaceful… more life-giving.
We questioned whether or not we, as ministers on campus, were a part of the problem… or a part of the solution.
And then a friend pulled out his phone and shared this poem with us:
Fire
by Judy Brown
What makes a fire burn
is space between the logs,
a breathing space.
Too much of a good thing,
too many logs
packed in too tight
can douse the flames
almost as surely
as a pail of water would.
So building fires
requires attention
to the spaces in between,
as much as to the wood.
When we are able to build
open spaces
in the same way
we have learned
to pile on the logs,
then we can come to see how
it is fuel, and absence of the fuel
together, that make fire possible.
We only need to lay a log
lightly from time to time.
A fire
grows
simply because the space is there,
with openings
in which the flame
that knows just how it wants to burn
can find its way.
It goes against almost everything within us — and our students — to create space in our lives.
But it’s where God resides.
Where God waits.
Patiently.
For our students.
And for us.
SO,
How can we come against the frenetic pace of college life?
How can we challenge our students to consider a better, more healthy way of living?
Are we — you and I — a part of the problem (based the example we set) or the solution?
If we don’t step up and pave a new — something counter to the fast-paced life culture in which we live — than who will?
Our students need us to lead them in this way!
