Day 3 (8/28 - Fri)

The first week of classes is over. What have I learned?

• that Thucydides is deep and leads to all kinds of fascinating questions
• that the new food options in SAGA are really great (flavored butters? sha-zow!)
• that my office doesn't clean itself
• that preparing for all my classes while getting research done AND watching Baseball Tonight on ESPN every night is ummm... not going to happen
• that friends make all the difference
• that we were made for community

I enjoyed a potent reminder of this tonight as I attended the Fall Gathering of the Wheaton Graduate School. What follows is the quotation projected onto the screen throughout the entire gathering:

"It is easily forgotten that the fellowship of Christian brethren is a gift of grace, a gift of the Kingdom of God that any day may be taken from us, that the time that still separates us from utter loneliness may be brief indeed. Therefore, let him who until now has had the privilege of living a common Christian life with other Christians praise God's grace from the bottom of his heart. Let him thank God on his knees and declare: It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren." --- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from Life Together

We sang together tonight, held candles together, held them up aloft, and in that candle-lit throng I felt the tug. We're a body, a family. Genuinely. Eternally. By the grace of the King. Amen.

Of course, there are many ways that community manifests itself -- such as this evening's gem, the annual fall country dance! Right in front of chapel, too. I love this weird and wonderful place.