by David Meton
I don’t smile all the time. It’s not that I am mad, but usually I am concentrating. When you are like me — not the sharpest knife in the drawer — and you want to get things right, you just have to think real hard and concentrate. When I do that, I forget to smile. But I am smiling right now.
There are many things that make me smile. I smiled this week when a pastor friend from Virginia sent me an email that 12 people were saved at a funeral he preached! Who couldn’t smile at that? I smiled a moment later when I thought of Mary, the mom of a wonderful lady in our church. Mary became my friend during our visits in the last months of her life. She was fun, feisty, but without Jesus. When she asked me to do her funeral — though she clearly told me she didn’t have any use for ministers … but she liked me — I told her, “Mary, you’re going to have to give me something to work with!” A few days later, her daughter Barbara won her mom to Jesus. Mary told her the next day, “I took my stand!” And she did. Four days later Mary was in heaven. That will put a huge smile on your face!
Much smaller victories make us smile too. Like when my son, Matthew, makes this funny face or my littlest guy, Joshua, does an imitation of Fozzie Bear. I smile when New York sports teams lose or when college students get an exam back with a better-than-expected grade.
Can I bring you in on one of my Boston Baptist College smiles? I dream for our college to help students from our churches train for ministry … in our churches. I think the gold standard is for young people to come to Boston, and then go back to the church that won them and raised them and serve that church. BBF churches fund my college, and I get a big kick out of seeing the system work. I have plenty to smile about in the Boston class of 2012.
Adam and Rebecca are preparing to be BBF missionaries, and they are going to intern in the church where they grew up! John is already on staff in a youth ministry where, just four years ago, he was a student himself! Travis and Adam are both serving in their home churches and will step up to greater responsibilities after we put diplomas in their hands. Here is a great story … Justin comes here from a North Carolina church (his wife, Sarah, deserves a shout out here), does an internship with Clayton Moorman in Maryland one summer, and now Justin goes on staff at Newark Baptist when he finishes at Boston. Show some teeth! This is what we do! And these are just a few of the stories with more in the pipeline.
Smiling is a good thing. Partnering with you to educate these young people is hard work. But it sure does have its moments. Even better than a great Fozzie Bear imitation.