Monday, August 18, 2003

5:55 PM My mind is jumbled right now—as it has been for the last few days, but more so now because in twelve hours we leave to take Nick to enroll at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. Tomorrow night we’ll be in Tupelo, Mississippi (staying with my brother Alan), then on to Birmingham for two days of orientation and getting Nick settled into his dorm, then a night in Florence, Alabama (with my brother Andy), another night in Nashville, Tennessee (with Marlene’s brother Mark), then back to Oak Park on Saturday. Later this week Mark (our middle son) moves back into the dorm at Moody Bible Institute.

Needless to say, our home has taken on the appearance of a bus depot, with boxes and suitcases and clothes and computer parts more or less everywhere you turn. Marlene has been checking things off her list to make sure Nick has everything he needs because you can’t easily drive home from Birmingham if you forget something. And there is the undeniable emotion of seeing your youngest child leave home and start college. Is it hard? Yes, and it’s difficult to explain how and why it is hard or even to understand your own feelings. Parents who have been through this know what I mean. There is the sad knowledge that a chapter in our family life has come to a close. This AM Mark and Nick and I (along with Craig Hammond) played golf at Columbus Park. Fittingly, Nick won and the rest of us tied for second place. Just now Nick and Mark and Tolee Chang are watching TV upstairs. Last night Mark and Nick and Marlene and I went to Chris and Kim Jahns’s home in Elmhurst for a final goodbye pizza blast. Nick and Laura Jahns have been good friends since the day we came to Calvary 14 years ago. This is what life is all about—we are born saying hello but soon we are saying goodbye so we can say hello to the future.

5:17 PM Here’s the Legacy Campaign prayer request for today: “Pray that we will abide in Christ and therefore bear much fruit (John 15:5).”

Ted Engel alerted me to a whole series of useful articles on “Gay Theology” analyzed from a Christian viewpoint at the Leadership University website.