My son began the long process of getting even with me this weekend. After years of discipline and reminders like, "Elbows off the table", he now has his revenge. Yesterday we drove on to the campus of East Texas Baptist University, my alma mater, the place where next Fall he will begin his journey away from home. I associate this hallowed place as the place of my youth. This is where my faith grew and I at least made some progress in growing toward the goal of being the minister God wants me to be. Ok, I also associate it with practical jokes like Kool Aid in the fountain on the Quad and welcoming the incoming class of Freshmen girls each year.
As I walked on to the campus I was returning not as a young skull full of mush with my entire exciting future before me. Now I was coming up the hill as a middle aged man about to throw his "baby" to the wolves. It seems like a really short time since I was a student there meeting Jonathan's Mother and now she and I are "the cute old couple" walking across the campus trailing our son as he drinks in the wonder of his soon to be new home.
If he doesn't wipe that silly grin off his face I may smack him! I know the fun that lies ahead of him. I know the challenges, the temptations and the disappointments. I wish I could protect him from some of those, make him cherish the others and convince him that some of the things he thinks are so important right now will be very unimportant in the long run. Yet, I know that is not only misguided and impossible, it is wrong. It's not just that I cannot deliver him from those things but also that I should not. I would be robbing God of the opportunity to create His fullness in my "little boy".
Thanks for listening. I'm going to eat a gallon of Blue Bell and things will be better tomorrow!
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