by David Melton
We have a long-standing family tradition. After Christmas shopping, we reconnect with our auto mechanic. Okay, so that is a positive spin for the reality — it seems like in the middle of winter every car we own needs some repair! When you drive “mature” automobiles, they break down. So my lot in life is to help my mechanic pay off his Christmas credit card balance!
Little wonder I’m thinking in terms of “repairs.” It is what all of us in ministry do. That could be interpreted a lot of ways. At Boston Baptist College we have several generations of buildings. Boyle Hall is just five or six years old, but Henry Hall, where my office is, is almost a century old! Often guests are complimentary about the “character” of Henry Hall. But as the guy who sees all the cash flow reports, “character” means “repairs.” If something breaks in Henry Hall it won’t be in stock anywhere, and it hasn’t been since the Eisenhower administration!
Far more important than old pipes or wooden trim, Boston Baptist College does “people repairs.” Thankfully, the Lord really does that, but our efforts are His workings — to get people from where they are toward what God wants them to be. Today, as I wait for the call from my mechanic, I’m reminded fixing something starts with some kind of diagnostic. Our society is, of course, increasingly secular, even anti-Christian, so many of our students walk in the door with a mind that is far from being in biblical-working-order. I do not intend to reflect poorly on our awesome students (they are ahead of most of their peers), but the reality is that some of them have just known nothing else. At Boston we start right there, where students are, and get to work to re-construct the heart and mind in the design of the Designer.
Like most repairs, it is rarely exciting moment to moment, but a time-lapse view can be astounding. I’m thinking right now of two of our students who have been saved for less than two years from pretty messed up lives. I’ve heard the witness of Christ flow out of mouths that once used quite different vocabularies! We may be (and we are) still working away, but already the engine is roaring and it’s something to behold!
Some students come from heartbreak, abuse, deprivation … even near destruction. Now I cannot get under the hood of any automobile and make much of a difference, but I get to be a part of a team in Boston — men and women, professors and staff, academics and pastors — and together, the work we get to share in often stuns us. Recently one of our profs told me about her work with a student. Their “talk” started about a class project and turned into a “what-God-has-brought-me-from” narrative. Repair is happening. Big-time overhaul. We’re not just constructing academic degrees. We are seeing God repair His people.
And that sure is a lot more rewarding than a new radiator! Mechanic just called — $800! Ouch.