Saying Goodbye

Despite the cool, rainy day here in Columbia, it is in fact the middle of August. Drew is attending orientation events today at Southern, and his classes start on Monday. I knew the summer would go by quickly as it always does, but I still can't believe we're nearing the end of it.

We are finally settling into this place. Drew (the wonderful nerd that he is) is incredibly excited about getting back into the classroom. I've been working my new job for a week now and am enjoying it. We're making great friends within this community of students. A year after accepting (somewhat begrudgingly) that we would have to move to Columbia, I am happy that we are here and excited for what the year will bring.

But change, even good change, must allow for some mourning for what has been lost. So, for just for a few moments, I'm going to let myself be sad. Because Drew's day full of orientation meetings has reminded me again that, for the first time in four years, we are not anticipating the arrival of our students and another year at Duke.

As if the experience of Duke Divinity wasn't enough, Drew's jobs in RLHS and Religious Life made the 2+ years we spent together in Durham quite an adventure. Better still, those jobs allowed us to work alongside fantastic staff people, and serving/ministering to a wide variety of students. I [almost always] enjoyed living in Bell Tower with the freshman, watching as they found their way in their new setting and figuring out what would shape their time at Duke. Working closer with the undergrads who were our RAs was better still. But our time serving the Duke Lutherans is what sticks out most. They are what made Duke so special. They are why I didn't want to leave. They are what I'm letting myself be sad about today.

It's not that things were always great, that every event was successful and everyone always got along. None of that. It was a group of imperfect people, from all over the country and the world, with different interests, opinions and career paths. But we laughed together. We worshiped, ate, cried, traveled, argued, sang and served together. It was an incredible blessing to get to know these undergrad and graduate students, to learn about their lives, to watch them persevere through academic and personal trials, to count them as friends.

So, to each of you, I want to say thank you. Thank you for sharing your lives and your time at Duke with me. For the Sunday night worship and dinners, conversations in the lounge, retreats, mission trips, holiday meals, facebook banter and movie nights. And, probably most importantly, thank you for the role you have played in our lives and our ministry in the church. Whether you know it or not, our time with you has been crucial in our continued discernment about Drew's call to ministry, and I am so grateful for your support and affirmation of him.

As your last days of summer wind down and you finish up the variety of crazy exciting things you've been doing over the past couple months, know that you are in our thoughts and prayers as you head back to Duke. It was an absolute privilege to be with you these past two years, and I am sad to say goodbye. But I look forward to stalking following your year on social media, to seeing how you continue to grow and work together as a group with new leadership and direction, fueled by love for God and one another. Because, as some guy a couple months ago reminded us, "Love is the only thing that makes new beginnings out of endings."