Abounding in Grace: High School Mini- Reunion

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

High School Mini- Reunion

I helped coordinate a small high school reunion in October. This reunion was intended to be casual. The next one in five years will be big and fancy.

I've aged 20 years in the last five years, but I skipped having my hair and make-up done, for truly, why should I care what everyone else thinks about my outward appearance anyway? My value is found in Christ alone and any beauty that truly matters should come from the Spirit radiating through me, not from outward adornments.

³Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— ⁴but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. (1 Peter 3:3-4)

With the most divisive presidential election in my lifetime involving nationwide violence and heated exchanges on social media and across the extremely biased and corrupt mainstream media networks, I was concerned that the reunion would be filled with political conflict. One classmate in particular had shared some fighting words with me over social media, so I was especially concerned how conversations would go with him, so I prayed that politics would be kept out of the evening. And for the most part they were. Actually, what happened that evening was miraculous. My political polar opposite classmate greeted me warmly and asked me to say a blessing before our meal. What public school has ever had a group blessing before the meal? The thought of praying corporately never occurred to me. This guy who attended "church" with Hillary Clinton, majored in religion, and insisted I was wrong when I simply stated that all God's words were true.....calling me arrogant while acknowledging that he is essentially shaking his fist at God and insisting that He was wrong when he wrote the inspired word and that the church could win a lot more souls if He had left out the unpleasant parts....you know...about sin and judgment...the whole reason Jesus came to earth and what the gospel of salvation is all about. But I digress....

So on the fly, I publicly thanked God for the roots we all share....same experiences, same hometown, same school, same teachers, same commitment to unity and to loving one another. Something like that anyway.... and the evening was so much fun without any disputing whatsoever. Thank you, Lord!

Our primary reunion planners (I just took care of registration & internet marketing)

I was known as the goody-goody in high school. I never really felt like I belonged in any one clique, and we certainly had a cliquey school. I just tried to be a friend to everyone without labeling myself or others. I may have felt distanced as a result, but God used it for my protection. The ladies shown below were always nice to me, however, both then and now.

Such sweet ladies

I really wish I had spent more time getting to know A, the nice lady in blue pictured above. Maybe she was just making flattering small talk, but what she shared with me at the reunion touched me deeply. She said she always watched me in high school and knew I was different and was inspired by me. She said she reads my blog posts as part of her devotional time and that she has been hosting international students as a form of ministry for the past 12 years, since she did not expect to have the resources to travel globally. I never hosted an international student for a lengthy period of time at all, so I'm not sure how I could have influenced her to do that. No, the Lord both inspired and prompted her to love the nations in that way, but if she saw the Lord in me, then all glory to God because far too often, I find myself quenching the Spirit and speaking or acting in the flesh and not the Spirit.

I shared how she had encouraged me with the 12 and13 year old girls in our Bible study group as a reminder to them that others are always watching them and learning from them, and that if they choose selfless love over self-interest and do the hard thing God wants them to do, even without any reciprocation or maybe even being persecuted for it at the moment, their classmates will grow-up and develop immense respect for them when they are older. And God will always reward them for their faithfulness. How I want to encourage them to keep that eternal perspective!

Ben (who traveled from Arizona to attend) & Pete

I haven't seen Christine since high school, but I was thrilled to learn that she is teaching now. No doubt she is called by God to that vocation. Teachers are heroes!

The guy pictured below in red may disagree with me on politics, but we both agree that his Boy Scout Troop makes some delicious venizon chili. I'm so glad they shared their cooking talents with us.

I never expected to bring a spider bread plate to an event, but Halloween was approaching!

I always have to give props to my long time friend, Craig (pictured at left in photo below). We attended church and school together since 6th grade. We went through confirmation together, co-led the high school youth-group, served together in student government, did music ministry together in nursing homes, and I even accompanied him on the piano during his All-State music competition. He made it! My closest friends had crushes on him, so I was often playing matchmaker for him, but oddly enough, he is the reason I met my husband! The whole story is summarized in the Our Love Story series on this blog in which I referred to him as "Curly".