A point of personal privilege and a sense of Presence

I must confess a "grandfather like" sense of presence in the Spirit this morning.

Because of the miraculous messaging system that is Facebook, I can more ably sense more accurately what I have felt after having been able to be mobile and agile for the past three years. 

For those of you who have known me for years, you may not have realized that for about 9 years, I was blessed( along with Leslie) to have served as a college parent/small group docent at Calvary Baptist Church in Waco, most of the time in the Camelot period when Julie PR was pastor.(1998-2007-and then intermittently on to 2009). 

I was also being taught by my spiritual director, Burt Burleson, about the wider scope of the Spirit’s progressive voice.

During this period of time, I was "the college minister" to so many individuals.

The people I was blessed to have met during this time where little Baylor Bear “cubs”—college students, who were drawn to this community because of the compelling love for Christ and His Children( Men, women in ministry, people of all races and nationalities, the poor, the disenfranchised) that this pastor( Pastor Julie) called us to.

So here we are, almost 10 years into the future from that point in time.(Leslie and I are no longer married..since 2013...)( and Pastor Julie is now in DC)...

And these Cubs, they're grown up "berenstain bears" now and they are in my Facebook feed.

And without fail, each of them is operating "at the top of the class" as outstanding professionals across the spectrum.

Musical leaders and composers, artists of all types, physicians, nurses, professors, writers, lecturers, mothers, fathers, daughters and sons, husbands, wives, able bodied citizens of their country. These Cubs are not all American. They reside in all corners of this earth...on every continent.

But they have a bond. Baylor. Calvary.Pastor Julie. Each other.

It’s the Calvary College Fellowship connection.

This experience was a blessing in my life, but now I get to drop in on their lives virtually, and even sometimes in bodily form.

This experience helped me to more readily identify what I am coming to believe is my functional role in life. That of a teacher, a mentor, an encourager, a coach, a public speaker and an instructor.

But this was an exceptionally special time...it was a 'camelot' time for most of us.

Such was/is Rev. Julie Pennington-Russell's leadership. What a gift.

But, back to my epiphany/or sense of presence.

The blessings in this life come from love. Love for others. That bond at Calvary. It was koinonia, a fellowship based on that form of love…phileo— love for our fellow humans.

The founders of the Calvary fellowship were Donovan McAbee and Amy Bigbee (now Grosso) Amy is a doctoral level professional counselor in Georgetown, TX, and Donovan is a professor at Belmont, a theologian, writer, activist and minister in the Christian church in Nashville, TN, after earning a PhD in Scotland.

Both successful in their field, both passionate about their lives, their families. I get to check in with both of them through our Facebook connection.
I am proud to have gotten to know each of them at their formative point, while in college.
Now I am so proud of their progress into becoming powerful examples, and thought leaders, true professionals. This is BU, its awesome alumni.

I could go on and on—there are so many examples. 

Just one more--this morning I online chatted with Sam Hemingway, who back in the day- attended briefly as an MK(missionary kid from the Middle East) while at Baylor, and now resides in Sulimaniyah, Iraq with his lovely wife and beautiful children. He is a citizen of Kurdistan. How interesting it is to communicate one on one with people all over the globe. I am so proud of this young man, like I am of all these Cubs.

Like I said, the examples go on and on, much like the blessings of the Spirit. One must awaken to them!

Peace.