Daily Devotion

The Edge House campus ministry is like the inn on the road to Jericho in the story of the Good Samaritan: a place of healing, of storytelling, of transition. Every Spring we’re reminded of transition when our beloved students graduate. And in 2020, it seems like every dang thing is in transition. Is anything not in transition? I suspect our scientist friends would say, “No, nothing.” And as a theologian, I can confidently agree. Change, as they say, is a constant.

But things changing isn’t necessarily a bad thing. And, not to confuse things, but sometimes bad things aren’t necessarily bad. I was talking with a first-year student the other day on campus about death and how things ending isn’t always a sign of failure. I have been present for so many good deaths—people who lived long, full, loving lives and who felt that love in return, people whose families knew that they had done what needed to be done. I have seen in 11 years of campus ministry programs begin and programs end and contribute something beautiful in the meantime. And I’ve seen those same graduations full of both celebration and grief because, while they are clear endings, they are also beginnings. As Pastor Alex says, “Resurrection only happens to dead things.”

Everything changes and we humans spend a lot of energy trying to keep them from doing so. Put things back the way they were, return to “normal,” fight hard to keep someone alive who has lived long and well and who is suffering. I hope it’s clear that I’m not advocating for never fighting for something needed, only that it’s important to notice what it is we’re fighting for. And, because we are people of faith, how is God moving in that relationship as well? How is God holding you and the world in that moment?

What’s changing in your life or in the world right now that makes you scared or angry? What can you see dying and what could be being born because of it?